Mennonite and Nazi? Attitudes Among Mennonite Colonists in Latin America, 1933-1945, by John D. Thiesen
1999. 329 pp. ISBN: 978-0968346259
John D. Thiesen's carefully researched study moves the discussion and interpretation of National Socialism among Mennonites in Latin America forward and will help Mennonites understand themselves and each other better.
"This is an important book on a dark and controversial period in Mennonite history. The author and Pandora Press are to be congratulated on their courage to publish it. In the preface John Thiesen sets out the book's purpose: "The main question running through the book is: 'Given a long heritage of pacifism plus resistance to the political order and relative withdrawal from it, why did some Mennonites in Latin America fall for Nazism so easily?"' Thiesen's answers to this question are based on an examination of the historical and cultural background of the Russian Mennonites in South America and a careful reading of the available sources, many of which are used here for the first time... This well-written, attractively produced book with its copious sources and notes belongs on the shelf of all serious students of Mennonites' encounter with National Socialism." - Harry Loewen, in the Conrad Grebel Review
John D. Thiesen is the co-director of libraries at Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas.