Henry Fred Gerecke

Reverend Henry Fred Gerecke (/gɛrəki/; August 4, 1893 – October 11, 1961) was a Lutheran minister who worked as a pastor, evangelist, prison chaplain, and US Army hospital chaplain. He is most well known for his work as a chaplain during the Nuremberg Trials following the end of the Second World War, when he ministered to leading figures of the German Nazi Party who were on trial for war crimes.

Personal life Henry Gerecke was born in 1893 in Gordonville, Missouri. His mother Caroline "Lena" Gerecke (née Kelpe) was originally from Hanover, Germany and his father Herman Gerecke was an American farmer of German descent. Gerecke helped his father on the family farm in his youth as a farm labourer and when aged fourteen he heard Billy Sunday preach, the influential baseball player turned evangelist who inspired the young Henry Gerecke to pursue a calling in Christian ministry.