During our most recent travels, my wife Dell and I visited the beautiful Polish port town of Gdansk. While there we took a side trip to tour what remains of the German run Stutthof concentration camp. Opened on September 2, 1939, just a day after the German invasion of Poland, Stutthof was the first of these nightmare facilities established outside of Germany and among the last to be liberated.
The atrocities committed at Stutthof represent some of the most brutal and dehumanizing aspects of the Nazi regime. From its inception, Stutthof quickly evolved from an internment facility into a site of systematic cruelty and murder. An estimated 110,000 Poles, Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, intellectuals, dissidents, and other undesirables were deported to Stutthof during its existence. Over 65,000 of them perished due to starvation, disease, overwork, brutal treatment and abuse from the volunteer S.S. guards, freezing weather conditions, and execution.
The ‘operating’ room used primitive medical tools where death was the common outcome.
Mass shootings and hangings were common—often in public view to terrorize the remaining prisoners. The inmates were also subjected to depraved and incredibly painful medical experiments resulting in debilitating health issues, lasting injury, or death. However, possibly the most horrific aspect of Stutthof was the use of the gas chamber and crematorium constructed in 1943 as the camp expanded. Thousands of prisoners deemed offensive by the Nazi regime were herded into the concrete block death trap and murdered. Dying in the packed chamber often took up to an hour or more.
Stutthof was particularly notorious for the appalling treatment of Jewish women. Many were subjected to sexual violence, forced labor in especially harsh conditions, and the aforementioned medical experimentation. In the final phase of the war, as the Red Army advanced, the Nazis forced tens of thousands of prisoners on death marches from Stutthof and its subcamps. Those who could not keep up were shot along the roadside. Many died of starvation, cold, and exhaustion during these forced evacuations.
The sheer scale and cruelty of the atrocities at Stutthof often receive less attention than those at larger camps like Auschwitz, yet the suffering endured there was immense. The camp operated almost until the end of the war, with thousands of people perishing even in its final weeks. After liberation by the Soviets in May 1945, only a fraction of the prisoners remained alive. Since these prisoners had survived, the Russians believed they must have been collaborators and instead of helping them, they re-interred them in Soviet gulags.
As we drove away from the silent anguish of the ghosts of Stutthof, we felt humbled and heartbroken. However, we also felt making the choice to visit Stutthof and recognize the powerful evidence of the crimes committed there underscored the importance of remembrance and education to prevent such horrors from recurring.
Three prisoners were forced to sleep together in these small beds without blankets or mattresses even in the freezing winters.
Personally, I felt overwhelmed by the legacy of evils to which we had stood as secondhand witnesses. I began to wonder how it was possible that the scope of forgiveness through Christ’s all-embracing and infinite atonement could possibly extend to the perpetrators of these vilest of acts. For days afterward I was consumed by this question before finally turning to scriptures and doctrine for answers.
Central to the gospel teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we hold the atonement of Jesus Christ to be both infinite and intimate. It reaches across all time, places, and circumstances to provide a path to redemption for all of God’s children. In our fallen state of mortality, it is hard to understand its true scope and how it applies to each of us individually. However, it is even harder to imagine (or even to accept) how it might apply to those human monsters—specifically in this case Nazi concentration camp officers and guards—who knowingly and willingly commit inhuman atrocities. While acknowledging the profound gravity of such crimes, LDS doctrine, however, also upholds principles of divine justice, agency, repentance, and the boundless mercy offered through the gift of Christ’s Atonement.
In Alma 34:10, we are taught the atonement is infinite and eternal, covering all sins, pains, and sorrows. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has affirmed there is no sin so great that the Atonement cannot reach it—provided there is sincere repentance. This principle is sobering when applied to the Holocaust, where millions perished under the inhumanity of a regime supported by many, including those who ran and guarded the concentration camps with the goal of committing genocide against those fellow humans they believed were inferior.
It is essential, however, to differentiate between the general reach of the atonement and its individual application. The atonement is available to all, but it is not automatically applied. Each person must access its power through faith in Christ, sincere repentance, and covenantal obedience.
The incinerator where bodies were burned after being murdered in the gas chamber built next to it.
Latter-day Saint theology teaches that God’s justice is perfect and that individuals are accountable for their own choices (Articles of Faith 1:2). In the case of the guards at Stutthof concentration camp, by willingly participating in the torture and murder of innocents, they exercised their agency in the gravest way possible. Doctrine and Covenants 137:9 states, “God will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.” Therefore, those who acted with cruelty, hatred, or with knowledge of wrongdoing cannot escape judgment merely by circumstance or ignorance.
Repentance is a core component of the Plan of Salvation. But it is not a simple or superficial process—particularly in cases involving serious sin. President Spencer W. Kimball, in The Miracle of Forgiveness, outlines a rigorous path—recognition of sin, godly sorrow, confession, restitution where possible, forsaking the sin, and turning to God.
The soles and rotting remains of hundreds of thousands of shoes (including some from other camps) taken from the prisoners.
For those who ran and guarded the Stutthof concentration camp—or committed mass murders and other atrocities elsewhere—true repentance would require acknowledging the full horror of their actions, feeling godly sorrow to the depths of the soul, and striving to repair the damage done—a near-impossible task given the magnitude of their crimes. But while full restitution may not be possible, the atonement can also bridge what humanity cannot fix. If such a person genuinely turned to Christ, abandoning their sins and pleading for mercy, the atonement could theoretically extend even to them.
The Latter-day Saint view of the final judgment is that it is ultimately God’s prerogative, made with perfect knowledge, love, and justice (2 Nephi 9:15). We are not in a position to determine the eternal destiny of any soul, no matter how dark their actions may appear to us. Alma 41:3 teaches that “every man receiveth according to his deeds,” but those deeds are judged within the context of knowledge, intent, and opportunity.
A beautiful monument erected at the camp to honor those who died there… Notice the May 9th 1945 date (VE Day) and the human figures carved into the stone.
Moreover, Latter-day Saints believe in the Spirit World, where post-mortal repentance is possible to some degree (Doctrine and Covenants 138). Yet for those who had knowledge and still chose evil, the path becomes exceedingly narrow. As stated in Alma 39:6, some sins approach the unpardonable—though only God knows who crosses that threshold.
The atonement of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to cover all sin, but it does not override justice, agency, or the need for deep and sincere repentance. For a Nazi concentration camp guard like those who committed or made possible the atrocities of Stutthof, the application of the atonement would require a level of humility, sorrow, and transformation that is difficult to imagine—but not impossible in the eyes of God. Latter-day Saint doctrine compels us to believe in justice and mercy, recognizing that Christ descended below all things so that no one is beyond hope—if they choose to change.
In the end, it is God who will judge the hearts of men. Our responsibility is not to excuse evil, but to try to imagine and understand the fullness of the atonement and trust in God’s perfect justice and mercy.
