Fire and Steel, Volume 1

  © 2014 GNL Enterprises, LP.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Deseret Book Company ([email protected]), P.O. Box 30178, Salt Lake City Utah 84130. This work is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church or of Deseret Book. Deseret Book is a registered trademark of Deseret Book Company.

  ® This is a work of fiction. Characters and events in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are represented fictitiously.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  (CIP data on file)

  ISBN 978-1-60907-992-5

  Printed in the United States of America

  Publishers Printing, Salt Lake City, UT

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  “Behold, I have refined thee,

  but not with silver;

  I have chosen thee

  in the furnace of affliction.”

  —Isaiah 48:10

  “Behold, I have created the smith

  that bloweth the coals in the fire,

  and that bringeth forth

  an instrument for his work.”

  —Isaiah 54:16

  Table of Contents

  In Memoriam

  Preface

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Bibliography

  In Memoriam

  Lynn S. Lund

  1942–2014

  _______________________________

  She caught my eye when I was twenty;

  She held me transfixed for over fifty years.

  She had the gift of music placed within her in the premortal life;

  She shared it joyously with her family and the world for nearly seventy years.

  At thirteen, she feared that, like her mother, she might go years without having children;

  At her passing, sixty-four of her immediate family members came to say farewell.

  She was a paid teacher of children for nine months; she taught and mentored children, grandchildren, young women, auxiliary leaders, missionaries, members, and her husband for over five decades.

  She had a sensitivity to the Spirit that was often quite astonishing, often proclaiming how things would be with individual family members long before they came to pass.

  She was my first reader, my most loyal supporter, my most astute, most honest, and therefore my most valued critic; though rarely credited to her, her input and insights permeate the books I have written and the things I have taught.

  She was the love and light of my life, the joy and exultation of my soul.

  I cherish the countless memories we made together; I see her stamp and her mark and her influence all around me.

  I look forward to the day when I shall step through that golden door that provides entry into the eternities and find her waiting there to greet me.

  _______________________________

  A Generation Rising is the first volume in my new historical fiction series, Fire and Steel. This multigenerational series will span about seventy years. In this series, I will introduce two new fictional families: one a simple farm family from Bavaria in southern Germany, whom you will meet in this volume, and the other a ranching family from rural Utah. However, in volume one, I introduce only the family from Germany. The Utah family will be introduced in volume two.

  These two families will experience some of the most turbulent times in the history of the world, including

  • An explosion of technology that will profoundly alter people’s lives—electricity, the telephone, the automobile, household appliances, radio, movies, television, and the atomic bomb.

  • The “War to End All Wars,” later called World War I.

  • The October Revolution in Russia and the rise of communism as a dominant world order.

  • The Spanish flu epidemic, which cost the lives of about 100 million people worldwide.

  • A catastrophic global financial collapse.

  • A Great Depression that lasted nearly a decade.

  • World War II, which dwarfed the first global war in scope and ferocity and which, for the first time in modern warfare, saw major attacks from both sides against civilian populations.

  • The deliberate and systematic annihilation of six million people deemed to be inferior and undesirable.

  These events created profound crises in the lives of individuals on a scale most of us today can scarcely imagine.

  Both families are fictional, but the events they will experience are not. And how they choose to respond to the unbelievable financial, social, political, and emotional upheaval in their lives will be representative of how real people on both sides reacted to these powerful forces swirling around them.

  The Individual in Crisis

  Understanding how individuals react in times of great—even catastrophic—crisis has long been a great interest of mine. In my late teens, I became fascinated by how various people responded when their lives were turned completely upside down. I first studied individuals in war—not just soldiers who faced combat, but also civilians who saw war roll across their own lands.

  Soon, my interest expanded to any situation in which individuals were placed in crisis, such as being caught in a major natural disaster or living under oppressive, totalitarian regimes. It seems to me that such crushing circumstances reveal the best and the worst of the human spirit. I have read of incredible acts of selflessness, courage, endurance, and faith. I have also read of cowardice, cruelty, exploitation, greed, and a loss of all common sense.

  Fire and Steel

  Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. In its cold state, iron is not very malleable. But someone discovered centuries ago that when iron is heated until it is red-hot, it becomes highly malleable and can be hammered into a new shape. When cooled again, the iron holds the new shape permanently. However, iron is “soft” enough that when it is shaped into a cutting edge, such as in a sword, knife, or axe, it quickly dulls.

  As more centuries came and went, blacksmiths made three history-changing discoveries:

  First, when they accelerated the cooling process by plunging the red-hot iron into a tub of cold water, the metal was strengthened considerably. This process, which is called “drawing out the temper,” produced tempered iron.

  Next, blacksmiths discovered that the hammering of red-hot iron not only shaped the metal but also strengthened it. One might expect the violent and prolonged blows to weaken the metal, but the opposite was true.

  Finally, and perhaps most significant, someone discovered that if you add a small percentage of carbon to molten iron, the metal is strengthened even more dramatically. This carbon alloy of iron is called steel, which is even stronger and harder than tempered iron.

  Thus, through the art of the blacksmith, man learned that strong, tempered steel is the end product of three dynamic forces:

  • The fire of the forge.

  • The hammer and the anvil.

  • Sudden, drastic change of environment from the red-hot coals to col
d water.

  “Pure Steel”

  Many years ago in a class at Brigham Young University, we were discussing the pioneer period of LDS Church history. The professor was making the point that these people, for the most part, were not frontiersmen or explorers or even rugged individualists like the mountain men of earlier times. They were city people, factory workers, simple farmers, and tradesmen. Some came from elegant homes and relative luxury and comfort. Many, especially those from Europe, were from the poorest classes.

  Then they received the call to come to Zion. In faith, they answered the call. They crossed the plains in wagons, by handcart, or on foot. Upon their arrival, often with only a few days’ rest, they were sent out to establish new settlements.

  As we were discussing all of this, one student raised his hand. “That is really quite amazing,” he noted. “How were they able to do so much?”

  Without hesitation, the professor responded: “Oh, that’s easy to explain. By the time they had crossed the plains, most of the physically weak had died, and most of the spiritually weak had dropped out. So what Brigham Young had left when they arrived in the Valley was pure steel.”

  God Himself used the imagery of the blacksmith’s forge to describe how He strengthens His people:

  “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10).

  “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work” (Isaiah 54:16).

  When we talk of those early “tempered Saints,” we are astonished at their faith, their courage, their endurance, and their tolerance for suffering. We share their stories from generation to generation because they inspire us to be greater.

  But you don’t have to read very far in the journals and histories to find examples of those who broke under the pressure, who threw up their hands and cursed either God or the prophet, who either stopped in place or turned around and went back. I have come to call them the “dropout pioneers.” These were the ones who couldn’t endure the heat of the fire, or the blows of the hammer, or the sudden and drastic alteration of their lives.

  This is the theme of Fire and Steel—how life itself provides the needed conditions to temper and strengthen individuals. The two families in the story will face the fires of tribulation, feel the hammering blows of adversity, and see everything they hold dear totally upended. They will be violently ripped away from their comfortable lives and plunged into circumstances that will try them to the very depths of their souls. A Generation Rising begins our story.

  GERMANIA

  Germania and the Holy Roman Empire

  By the time of Christ and the Christian era, the Roman Empire, with its insatiable quest for land, riches, slaves, and power, had swallowed up much of the European continent. One could leave the Roman capital and travel in a northwesterly direction on well-maintained Roman roads for 1,200 miles.

  But if one traveled due north, up the long boot of Italia and across the Alps, one quickly reached the northern border of the empire. In the vast lands to the north of the Danube River and to the east of the Rhine lived a collection of tribes so fierce, so warlike, and so incapable of being civilized that eventually the Roman legions fortified the southern border of those lands and left the people alone. Caesar called that unconquerable north land with all of its dozens of tribes Germania.

  The Germani were not farmers other than having small garden plots cultivated by individual families. They were hunters and warriors. No one owned land as permanent property. Each year the tribal chiefs would assign land to the clans, who then parceled it out to their people. But the next year, everyone was impelled to move to a new place so that the people didn’t become focused on the land and lose their zeal for war. This also kept them from building permanent shelters against the cold and the heat. Too much comfort weakened the character, they thought.

  The men generally each had one wife, and adultery was rare. The opinions of women were respected to the point that they often accompanied the men into battle to give them counsel and encouragement. Robbery among their own people was not tolerated, but it was encouraged when it involved outsiders. Often, senior chieftains would lead plundering expeditions to give the young men experience in battle and help them avoid idleness. To the Germani peoples, the highest glory was to lay waste to lands bordering their territory, thus making them uninhabitable. They saw this as proof of their valor. It also kept their borders secure from invasion.

  The Germani did not keep written records, so not much is known about them from the ensuing centuries. They must have consolidated the tribes to some degree, because when the French King Charlemagne was appointed to be the first ruler of what came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Germany was largest group within it. In the minds of Germans ever after, the Holy Roman Empire came to be known as the First German Reich.

  The Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War

  After Charlemagne’s death, the empire limped along for centuries, almost dissolving due to the weak leadership of Charlemagne’s successors. Then in AD 962, Otto I, Duke of Saxony and king of Germany, was crowned emperor by the pope. The former rights held by the Roman Caesars now rested in German hands.

  Otto immediately set about to unify the Germanic tribes under the leadership of a central government. However, the fiercely independent spirit that had kept the Germani unconquerable for so many centuries was not so easily quelled. Powerful kings and princes were on the rise in other countries. Ruling dynasties brought stability and consistency to their subjects, often over many generations. Not so in Germany. As the centuries came and went, Germany remained a hopelessly fragmented, impossibly crazy patchwork of over 300 separate states.

  The Protestant Reformation swept across Europe with hurricane force beginning with Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. But Luther’s impact on Germany went far beyond his Protestant vision of Christianity. His German Bible provided a standardized language for the people and became a powerful unifying influence. His doctrines of the freedom of individual conscience electrified the people and changed the culture profoundly. People were motivated to study and learn for themselves. Literacy rates increased. The arts and commerce thrived. Prosperity rose. Many of the Protestant German princes extended new freedoms to their people. A new sense of German pride and German nationalism began to develop.

  Inevitably, the Reformation also brought war. These were considered issues of eternal consequence. The divisions became so bitter and acrimonious that both sides took up the sword to defend their faith. Rulers all across Europe were forced to decide where they stood. Soon all of Europe was divided into two major religious camps.

  About a hundred years after Martin Luther’s bold action, one of the most devastating of the religious wars began. In this case it was not solely about religion. Competing dynasties were jockeying for power. Savage war raged across Europe off and on for three decades, earning the conflict the name the Thirty Years’ War.

  Germany lay right in the center of the conflict and was hit the hardest. Entire regions were utterly devastated. Thousands of towns and villages were destroyed. One-third of the population was lost to war, famine, disease, or being hauled off as slaves.

  In the end, the Thirty Years’ War virtually snuffed out every sign of the surge in culture, learning, arts, and commerce that had resulted from the Reformation. The Germany that was rapidly becoming one of the fountains of European civilization disappeared as a tidal wave of barbarism returned. Civilization came to a standstill in Germany while the rest of Europe moved forward into the new age. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the German character became ingrained with a fatalistic acceptance of tyranny, autocratic and capricious rule, and suppression of law and human rights.

  Prussia and Frederick the Great

  In that dark and bewildering tim
e, one German state, Prussia, began to slowly rise in prominence above the others. During the Crusades, a religious/military order called the Teutonic Knights, a fierce warrior class reminiscent of the earlier Germani, invaded Prussia and gradually wrested power from the native Slavic populations.

  This was a kingdom built primarily on military prowess. It was far distant from the political centers of Europe. It had few natural resources of its own. The population was small and scattered. There were no big cities and no substantial industry. Even the noble families were poor by the standards of other European ruling families.

  But the blood of those early Germani ran deep in the Prussians. Their determination to conquer was like hammered steel. Their organizational ability was remarkable. Their armies became some of the best in Europe, and their reputation for fierceness and courage spread rapidly. Where conquest was not likely, they made treaties and alliances with powers that threatened their success. When peace was no longer expedient, they tore up the treaties and invaded their former allies.

  In Prussia, it was expected that the finest minds and the greatest talents would become military careerists. About three-quarters of the state’s annual revenues went to the army. As one French leader later said, “Prussia is not a state with an army, but an army with a state.” Thus, the state, which was run with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine, became everything. The people were little more than cogs in that machinery. Even the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant declared that the duty to the state demanded the suppression of human feeling.

  In exchange for that total submission, the German people once again began to discover pride in being German, something they had not felt for over two hundred years.