Near death in a prisoner of war camp at the end of World War II, C. Robert Kirschbaum survived to fulfil a remarkable promise he received in a priesthood blessing given by a young Dutch Latter-day Saint officer.
As promised in the blessing, Brother Kirschbaum and his wife, Jeane (nicknamed "Hens"), a courier in the Dutch underground during the war, have been pillars of strength in the Haarlem Ward, The Hague Netherlands Stake, since their baptism in 1946.He has served as director of public affairs for the Netherlands for the past decade, assisted by Sister Kirschbaum. They are well-respected throughout the country for their countless hours of volunteer service. Both have made significant contributions to their homeland.
He was born of Dutch parents in Padang, Indonesia, during the colonial period in 1921. He enjoyed a care-free boyhood in Indonesia, but at age 14 returned to the Netherlands and lived in Heemstede, a suburb of Haarlem near Amsterdam. At that time, his parents placed him in Dutch schools, an education that led to his admission to the Royal Dutch Naval Academy in 1939 at the beginning of World War II. While in the academy, he met and dated his future wife, Jeane Henny zur Kleinsmiede, who also lived in Heemstede.
He graduated from the academy as an officer but in 1942, he and other Dutch naval officers were captured by the German army and taken prisoner. They were eventually sent to a prisoner of war camp in Stanislav, the Ukraine, which was then controlled by the Germans.
While in the camp, he became acquainted with Peter Vlam, another Dutch officer. "Peter Vlam was the technical officer of the Dutch Royal Navy, and he was telling other people in the camp about the restored gospel," recalled Brother Kirschbaum. "Within a couple of years he had 15 people interested in the gospel."
As the war drew to a close, he recalled, the Russian army in tanks liberated the camp from the Germans. He said the tank column was well-disciplined, but what followed was a disorganized army of soldiers from Siberia, China and Europe who could not understand one another. Desperately ill with pleurisy and a respiratory infection, he was at first lost in the confusion. An impatient doctor declared that he was too ill to be transported - a certain death sentence.
"I gave up all hope and became very depressed," he said. "Then Peter Vlam came to me." The young elder gave his co-prisoner a remarkable blessing that promised recovery and gave instructions for his future.
"He told me to leave the Royal Navy. I thought that by no means would I leave the Royal Navy. He told me to get a job in Amsterdam with an engineering firm. He told me to be baptized, and to marry my sweetheart. He promised me that I would become a pillar of faith in the Church.
"I went from being very depressed to being very happy. I just became radiant - I knew it was true and I wanted to tell everyone because I was so happy. But no one understood. They thought it was the last bit of energy before I died."
On the day that the Dutch officers were evacuated, one Dutch medic refused to leave the young ill officer behind. "He found a farmer's cart and horse, and he put my bed on the cart. He drove behind a group of Dutch officers to the railroad station," said Brother Kirschbaum. "He was satisfied only when I was in the hands of English and American doctors.
"I was very grateful for this medic who didn't ask for orders; he just did what was right. This was my first experience of the Lord helping, but many came after. I began to realize that the restored gospel was more than just knowing the Bible. These things showed me that it was not a church of people, but a Church of God."
He returned to the Netherlands. There, his girlfriend located him. He not only was very ill, but before long, she thought he was also very strange.
"I had one hour each night with him," she said. "He was talking about a religion I didn't know and reading books I didn't know. I thought, `Good grief! I will marry a monk!' Every night he sent another book home with me. I just laid the books on the table and hoped he would be normal when he recovered."
After three or four weeks, the young patient gave up trying to convert his girlfriend. He stopped talking about religion and stopped sending books home with her.
If it was reverse psychology, it worked. "I wondered, Why has he stopped?' " she said. "Is that all he has to tell me?' I began reading in the books of the Church. My interest began growing and after two months, I began asking him about the gospel."
On May 26, 1946, eight months after he was released from the prisoner of war camp, he and his girlfriend were baptized.
"We weren't baptized in Haarlem because we had no building, no baptismal font," he said. "We went to Amsterdam where there was a meetinghouse."
The young couple was married about a year and a half after their baptism. They eventually became parents of three children. A daughter died soon after birth.
In the early 1950s, as most members immigrated to the United States, there was little leadership left in the Netherlands. "We had no facilities at all," he said. "We rented rooms, and the Salvation Army was our neighbor; they sang louder than we did."
He became branch president of the Haarlem Branch five years later. He served for 10 years, then was released for a year and re-called for another seven years.
During this time he was employed as an engineer, pursuing a career that had its ups and downs. "In the 1940s and '50s it was shameful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Holland," he said. At his workplace, people thought "I was a very strange boy." At times he felt his job was at risk, and sometimes he was passed over for promotions. "But by and by we were blessed," he said.
Brother Kirschbaum became a designer of steam engines and turbines. As such, he said, he has learned to rely on the Lord. "Step by step, I asked the Lord, `Am I on the right way, or not?'
"And so step by step, I got the answer, yes or no. This way you get a lot farther than you can get on your own."
He became the assistant manager of the ship repair department of United Engineering. By 1955 he became chief of the Design Department for all marine turbine power plants for the company. In 1963 he became the manager and chief engineer of the steam department. In 1967 he joined another company, Dorr Oliver, as a director and manager of industrial projects. In 1969 he became director of Operations - Europe, in charge of the Project and Systems Division.
In 1975 he joined the Rotterdam Drydock Ltd., as project engineer for large electrical power stations. He continued to design and engineer large steam turbine power plants and became one of the chief consultants of steam power plants in the country, a position that included redesigning existing power plants with a design of his own that has essentially revolutionized the industry. Brother Kirschbaum, 75, is now retired.
Sister Kirschbaum became a volunteer and performed such exceptional service that in recent years the mayor of her home town, Heemstede, presented her, on behalf of the Queen of Holland, the Royal Golden Medal of Honor of the Knighthood of Oranje-Nassau, for her more than 50 years of service to the community. (See Church News, Nov. 20, 1993, p. 7.)
She helped in flood relief of Zeeland in the 1950s, and was a principal in an old-age care program in Heemstede and surrounding communities. For more than 25 years she carried out a twice-monthly cultural program for the aged. When town funding was cut off, she obtained private funds to sponsor the program.
In 1984 she helped organize a long-term relief program: "Haarlem is Helping Poland" in concert with members of 17 other churches.
Truly, the Kirschbaums have realized the promise of a young officer's blessing in a prisoner of war camp half a century ago, becoming pillars of faith in the Church and the nation.
