Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
Popular Utah film-maker T.C. Christensen has announced the theatrical release of his latest big-screen endeavor to inspire and enthrall audiences. "Escape from Germany" details the true recounting of a miraculous yet unsung WWII event and is coming to theaters April 11.
As depicted in Christensen's forthcoming film, Hitler's army was rapidly closing borders in August of 1939 while 79 American missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were serving in Germany.
As the German military preparations escalated, orders came to speedily move those LDS missionaries to safety in adjacent countries. Taken from the personal diaries of those missionaries, this riveting story is a testimony that God truly leads and protects His servants, opens doors, and provides timely inspiration.
The harrowing escape of these missionaries from Nazi Germany as World War II started is one of the most remarkable but little-known events in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints history.
In the fall of 1939 President Heber J. Grant sent this message to the missions in Germany, "THE WAR IS GOING TO START IN 3 DAYS. GET OUR MISSIONARIES OUT OF GERMANY."
This film tells the story of how the missionaries made their escape. It wasn't easy. It took much effort and many miracles to make it happen. The last missionary got out and into Denmark on Thursday, August 31. The next morning Germany invaded Poland and the war began, trapping many people inside German borders.
With limited communication, penniless and under the close watch of Nazi German leaders, missionaries lacked the directive and means to escape a situation quickly becoming dangerous.
Without name tags, sometimes traveling individually, and somewhat in hiding, the missionaries themselves were tough to spot by those trying to aid in the escape. Though borders would close in days, neither leaders of the local Church or those of the U.S. embassy knew the imminent danger the missionaries faced.
Pictures taken just prior show missionaries and members happy and calm. In just a short time, it would be critical that they rely on one another for the direction and peace heaven can bring.
The vast majority of extras seen in the film are the descendants of those who lived through and recorded the experience. "They add a special spirit to the set," Christensen shares. "They are there to honor their ancestors and it made me cry every single day."
Due to unexpected setbacks, Christensen feels excited, relieved and grateful that the story made it to the big screen at all. The pandemic prevented the ability to film for a time. It was extremely difficult to find a time-period train and train station for a realistic setting, but Budapest had both.
Finally, with cast and crew in Europe ready to shoot, Christensen learned the funds for filming had not arrived and plans halted. What to do? So Christensen went to church. There he met a foreign visitor that overheard the concerns of the crew, and stepped in with the rare ability to sort it out in hours. Christensen called it a miracle. It's not a word he uses lightly.
Looking back over a career of film successes with well-known box office hits like "17 Miracles," "Ephraim's Rescue," "The Cokeville Miracle," "The Fighting Preacher," "Love Kennedy" and more, Christensen realizes his storytelling has a central theme: bringing people home.
It's been 13 years since Christensen's hit "17 Miracles" was released in theaters. Years later, audiences still appreciate the tender mercies and miraculous intervention shared in that film. Interestingly, "Escape from Germany" shares 21 miracles experienced by a small group of elders and sisters in just a few days during 1939. President Joseph Fielding Smith is quoted in the film saying, "Heaven is very interested in the outcome of all of this." And so it goes through time.
The film opens throughout Utah on April 12, with most theaters offering full-day showings a day early, April 11, based on the already huge demand. The film is scheduled throughout Arizona and Idaho and is still adding bookings nationwide to open on April 26.
Visit EscapeFromGermany.com for additional details and ticket links.
