A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

and means to promote a German school in which young people can also receive instruction in Bible."" In later years every local congregation was urged to elect a committee that would initiate and supervise a program of instruction in German and religion. The transition from German to English in the Kanaedier M.B. churches began after World War I, but was delayed and the problem was intensified by the arrival of large contingents of Russlaender Mennonite Brethren in the twenties. In individual congregations the process of change was slowed down in later years by subsequent immigrant groups coming to Canada after the Second World War. The Mennonite Brethren from Russia provided a strong impetus for the building of private schools — Saturday schools (for children), high schools and Bible schools — in which the emphasis on German and religion was often closely linked. Although the concern for the preservation of the German language was initially motivated by religious and cultural factors, it took on some political overtones in the thirties, occasioned by the coming to power of Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Third Reich. Many Mennonites, including some Mennonite Brethren, moved from an identification with German culture to an identification with Hitler's Germany. A Berlin newspaper made the following claim in 1934: "The Mennonites are one of the strongest pillars of Germanism in Canada." 12 There are several reasons for this phenomenon among the Russlaender Mennonites of Canada during the 1930's. Hindenburg's Germany had provided substantial aid to the Mennonites who escaped from Soviet Russia in 1929-30. The strong anti-Communism of the Third Reich also met with the approval of the former victims of Communist oppression. Moreover, Hitler's economic achievements were widely acclaimed not only in Mennonite papers, but also in the Canadian press. All this led to an indiscriminate endorsement of Third Reich policies on the part of some Mennonite leaders. Other Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren leaders warned against the dangers of this "political Germanism." B. B. Janz, eminent Mennonite Brethren leader, wrote an article for the Lethbridge Herald in January, 1939, which also appeared in four Mennonite weeklies, "Am I a National Socialist — God Forbid." Janz rejected "the extravagant emphasis on language, which includes a certain contempt for other languages." 13 Janz differentiated between culture and politics. "Preservation of the German language," he said, did not mean 328 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH "adherence to German politics."' 4 The vast majority of Mennonite Brethren agreed with Janz. Nevertheless, the pro-German attitude of a vocal minority in several Mennonite communities did not go unnoticed by their Canadian neighbors. When war broke out in 1939, opposition groups did not always differentiate between cultural and political pro-German leanings. A hatred for everything