Word: thaddens
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Major Reinold von Thadden cut a fine figure as a German army officer, but he earned few laurels in Hitler's army. As occupation commander of Louvain in Belgium, he saved thousands of Belgian civilians from arrest and deportation. (Since the war's end, many have publicly thanked him.) In September 1944, just before the Allies recaptured Louvain, he calmly risked being shot by disobeying a direct SS order to execute Belgian hostages. "You know that I am a German officer," he replied. "You know that I am a Christian...
This week Reinold von Thadden, 60, was in the U.S. for a month-long lecture tour sponsored by the National Council of Churches. He brought evidence of revived Christian zeal among German laymen. The German Evangelical (Protestant) Church Congress-the Kirchentag-which Thadden founded 2½ years ago, has become the strongest organization of Protestant laymen in Europe. More than 300,000, from Eastern as well as Western Germany, attended its Berlin rally last summer (TIME, July 23). "The layman," Thadden told a Chicago audience last week, "is ... in fact the essential interpreter of the Christian message in the battlefield...
...Said Dr. Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff, president of the Kirchentag: "We do not want to hide the fact that the difficulties of conscience of those who are not allowed to proclaim their faith in full freedom weigh heavily upon us." ¶ Said Pastor Martin Niemböller, pointedly: "We must not extend brotherhood only to those with the point of view we like, but to all. We must understand even hardened criminals...