By Jennifer Holmes

Contributing Writer

LAPLACE – Living Water Baptist Church of LaPlace set the stage a final time on Feb. 15 for guest speaker Hilmar von Campe to discuss German citizenship under Hitler’s reign, POW war stories and Christian persecution in Nazi Germany.

The lecture started in typical Christian church fashion with prayer and song, and the atmosphere was energetic and motivating. Congregation members as well as first time visitors sang, danced, rejoiced and prayed for guidance and understanding, hoping to gain knowledge and wisdom through von Campe’s lecture.

Pastor Stan Genovese then introduced von Campe by telling an amusing yet inspiring story of an inadvertent phone call that resulted in what he called a miracle from God. According to Genovese, he was researching pastors in Nazi Germany and how they dealt with a struggling nation. Then Genovese received a phone call that not only answered his questions but answered his prayers.

“When he called me, it was a God send,” said Genovese. “No one knows how he got my number, but the fact that he’s here is nothing short of a miracle.”

Even though Genovese was not the pastor von Campe was attempting to contact, they quickly found common ground and set up an educational and motivational church lecture.

Von Campe then took the podium for the final time. For the past three days von Campe spoke about Nazi Germany and his indoctrination into the system and the individual’s inability to reset government control under those circumstances and finished with inspiring tales of escape from the POW camp in Yugoslavia where he was a prisoner.

Then, von Campe warned the audience about totalitarian governments and how one should be cautious of those in power, especially when rights and civil liberties are being invaded and diminished. He alluded to intriguing parallels between Nazi Germany and some aspects of American government, which are described in detail in his latest book “Defeating the Totalitarian Lie.”

“We need to be open to people speaking the truth,” said Genovese. “Mr. Hilmar has no agenda. He’s not concerned about making you a Republican or Democrat or making a following. He simply wants to tell you what he sees with his own eyes and his own experience and tell the church what we need to be doing. If the church is not right, the nation’s not right. We need to be making a stand for righteousness.”

Von Campe was born in Germany on April 11, 1925, and was lawfully forced to join Hitler’s Youth at age 10. At age 18 he was drafted and became a tank gunner in the German army. After Hitler’s fall, von Campe was captured by the communist government of Yugoslavia and became a POW.

Since his escape from Nazi Germany and Yugoslavia, von Campe has continuously worked at rebuilding his life and making a positive impact on the world.

He is an author of six books, founded the National Institute for Truth and Freedom and was listed in the 1992 Who’s Who of the Intellectuals of the International Biographical Center in Cambridge, England.