A Thousand Shall Fall is the story of Franz Hasel, a German
soldier and his family who dared to practice their faith in Hitler’s Germany.
It was 1939 in German and Franz and Helene Hasel and their
neighbors knew that Adolf Hitler was indeed preparing for war. And like
everybody else, the little Seventh-day Adventist family had been wondering what
the future would hold.
One Sabbath after church as they arrived home to their
apartment building they entered the lobby and checked their mailbox. There was a
bundle of letters, all business mail so Franz set it aside to look at later.
That evening going through the mail he discovered an official-looking envelope
which turned out to be a letter from the draft board summoning him to the army
recruitment center in Frankfurt on Monday at 8:00 a.m.
Franz was hoping not to be drafted. He had served his
country in the first world war before he had become a Christian and now he was
40 years old, a Christian and a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He
was one of the men who were drafted early on when Germany started fighting.
It is an amazing story. Of course he did not drink alcohol
and that merited him a promotion. However, asking for Sabbaths off was another
thing so Franz diplomatically asked if he could trade days with other men and
give them Sundays off, which he was allowed to do. During the 6 years that he
was in this war, Franz only had one Sabbath that he did not have off and that
was because he got confused on what day of the week it was.
On the other hand, Franz was very good with shooting a gun
and he did not want to kill anyone. So he got a wooden gun that he carried in
his holster through most of the war. At one point a higher up person told him he
noticed he did not get shot at so he wanted him to start staying next to him at
night.
The senior officer was amazed after Germany surrendered and
the soldiers were laying down their guns to discover that Franz had only a
wooden fake gun.
At one time, Franz was called in to tell about his studying
the Bible. One of the men had studied a lot of World History so Franz said he
had been wanting to talk to an authority on world history about the dream of
Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel had interpreted for him regarding the great world
empires, namely, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
The man Franz was talking to about this history had to agree
that world history followed that progression and that, Franz told him, is why
there was no way Hitler could win the war because the prophecy went on to say
that the nations would not cleave together after Rome.
It is an excellent book to bolster one faith in God’s
protection. To read the first chapter of this amazing story on line click here.
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