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Y Religion

Episode 15: The Moses of Czechoslovakia (Mary Jane Woodger)

Y Religion

BYU Religious Education

Religion & Spirituality, Education, Christianity

4.91.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1939, Adolf Hitler's army invaded Czechoslovakia. Although the Church was fragile in the area, the saints were strengthened by a man who is known today as the Moses of the Czech Republic. In this episode, Professor Mary Jane Woodger shares insights from her book, Mission President or Spy, The True Story of Wallace F. Toronto, the Czech Mission, and World War II, showing how faith can survive in challenging circumstances through the influence of fearless and faithful saints.

Transcript

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0:00.0

In the late 1930s, Nazi Germany was increasing their aggression, ignoring the Treaty of Versailles

0:06.8

and threatening to spread its empire all over Europe, including a place called the Sudetenland

0:11.9

of Czechoslovakia. This was a German-speaking area of about 3 million Czechs. France and Great

0:18.4

Britain decided to meet with Hitler, where they agreed to let him take over the Sudetenland if he promised that that would be the extent of his reach to occupy other countries in Eastern Europe.

0:29.6

Great Britain's Prime Minister, a man named Neville Chamberlain, came home from the agreement to Great Britain like a hero, thinking that he had just rescued the rest of Europe from the brink of war,

0:41.3

all hinging on the good word of Adolf Hitler.

0:45.3

That the settlement of the Czechoslovian problem,

0:51.3

which has now been achieved, is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement

1:02.8

in which all Europe may find peace.

1:11.9

The applause didn't last for very long.

1:15.4

Just a few months later on March 15th, 1939,

1:19.1

Adolf Hitler and the German army invaded Czechoslovakia.

1:23.9

The forwarded in the German army,

1:25.9

the enemy, the war.

1:52.0

With the invasion, Czechoslovakia was divided apart, and on paper anyway, ceased to exist. But its Latter-day Saints did not.

1:54.0

Although the gospel was young and fragile in East Germany in Czechoslovakia, they were led and strengthened by a man who was known as the Moses

2:02.4

of the Czech Republic, a man that you likely have never heard of, a man whose name was Wallace F. Toronto.

2:10.1

You look at Hitler, and of course the first place he goes after is Sudetenland and in Czechoslovakia.

2:22.3

And while he not only knows and sees that in Czechoslovakia, but in Germany that's what's going on when he's there on his first mission before he gets transferred.

2:27.3

And not just with Hitler, but then you go through the communist era in Czechoslovakia, and he's right there in the

2:36.6

middle of that. So it's an amazing character, not only in church history, but in Slavic history

2:49.6

in that part of the world. Today on why religion,

...

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