Chapter Eleven - Brave Men and True: Mormon Pacifism and the two World Wars.
The commonly held idea that the LDS Canadians did "nothing" during the two World Wars that defined the early twentieth century is unfair and rooted, ultimately, in prejudice against the Mormon population of the western reaches of the country.
What is true, of course, is that by the 1910s Mormonism had developed a definite pacifist credo. It was inspired in part by the memorialisation of the Fish Creek Massacre that, by the turn of the century, had increasingly become part of a developing sense of the national "story" of Canada. It was given a sharper definition still by the work of Bramwell Booth, son of William Booth, who had narrowly missed out on the Presidency of the Church. His missionary work, particularly in Africa where more and more of the Church's early 1900s efforts were based, inspired many in the Church to focus on more human and humane efforts. Bramwell's brief arrest in Belgium over his part in the 1904 Casement Report that exposed the atrocities of Leopold III's barbaric Free State and his subsequent release gave the Church's international and humanitarian work a sharper public definition. Individual Mormons continued to volunteer, however, and some have pointed to the terrible attrition rate of Canadian volunteer soldiers in the Boer War as a more recent defining factor in the Church's growing pacifism.
Still, the Church's non-involvement in both World Wars opened up believers and institutions to harsh criticism. The great stained glass windows of the Ottawa temple were smashed in 1915 by a jeering mob whilst many LDS believers found themselves on the receiving end of public antagonism. 'We didn't handle the situation well' recalled one Bishop of the 1914-1918 conflict. Whilst the Church was involved in many ways, with large amounts of financial and material resources aiding the medical and supply efforts of the Imperial forces, and thousands of young Mormons volunteered for non-combat roles, the stigma of "cowardice" hung over the LDS community in the interwar period. It contributed, in no small part, to the Freeholder Liberal Party (the amalgamation of non-Mormon politicians in Western Canada) trumping the Church Party in elections throughout the 1920s. Sympathy for the Church was at an all-time low.
Young LDS Conscientious Objectors at a Government Labour Camp in Quebec during the Second World War
The coming of a second global conflict was an opportunity for action and, learning from its mistakes, the Church's leadership took a much more dynamic role from the beginning. Pacifist youths from LDS communities were organised in Work Camps across Canada, visibly contributing to the war effort through production and construction, whilst the Church used its financial muscle to ensure that national papers did not forget the thousands of young men and women in medical and logistics services in Canada's Armed Forces. Public sympathy was also aroused by the discovery, post-war, of the terrible treatment of LDS believers in Nazi-occupied Europe. Although the numbers pale in comparison to Jewish or Roma victims, it is estimated from reasonably exact Church records that some 3742 believers were executed as part of Hitler's Final Solution. The visit of Princess Elizabeth in 1951 to Zarahemla during her tour of Canada post-war was a sign of how some, at least, recognized both the contribution of the Church to the national effort in wartime and the suffering of those Mormon men, women, and children, in the concentration camps.