Gerhard Ringhausen and Andrew Chandler have collected ~200 letters and enclosed documents exchanged between the Anglican Bishop George Bell (also an influential ecumenical leader in Europe) and the Swiss pastor and president of the Basel Church Council, Alphons Koechlin. The letters, delivered between 1933 and 1954, provide an illuminating window into the characters of these two men as well as the reaction of ecumenical church leaders to the crisis of the churches in Nazi Germany. The letters reveal deep concern for what they perceived to be the Nazi “revolution” unfolding in 1933 and dismay at the persecutions of German pastors who refused to toe the line of the Nazi regime, including the dismissal of Karl Barth from his position at the University of Bonn, and the arrest, trial, and incarceration of Martin Niemöller. The letters between Bell and Koechlin give evidence of their desire to support the churches amid crisis in Nazi Germany but also to be careful and diplomatic in a tremendously difficult state of affairs. The documents show that the churchmen understood the complexity of their involvement, as foreign church leaders, in German church affairs (for example, making pronouncements or visits into Nazi Germany), considering they would not necessarily want foreign church leaders from other countries getting involved in British or Swiss ecclesiastical matters.

This volume is of particular interest to scholars because of the tremendously helpful tools to make the most of the documents, including an informative introduction that provides the necessary context and background; yearly timelines of key events and references mentioned in the letters; extensive footnotes providing background of figures, events, and controversies discussed; and a robust index. The one area of the volume that could use more development is the collection of letters during wartime through 1954. While the first 290 pages cover 1933 to September 1939, only 20 pages cover the war through 1954. Yet, what is contained in these wartime and post-war letters certainly inspires the desire for more illuminating letters in this period. This volume is highly recommended for anyone interested in church leaders’ responses to Nazi Germany.