Following the document circulated from Himmler's headquarters in November 1936 the net around the Oxford Group in Germany was systematically tightened. In July 1937 the Gestapo in South-West Germany made official the measures for surveillance of the Oxford Group, its contacts, telephones and travels.15 At the same time Himmler informed Count John Bentinck that he had definite proof that the Oxford Group comprised a spy organisation. He demanded that Germans in the movement should cut all links with Buchman, but gave Bentinck permission to travel to Utrecht, where Buchman was holding a Dutch demonstration, to inform him personally. Bentinck stayed only two days, in order to show Himmler that he had obeyed.

Stroh, who had travelled up to Utrecht with Buchman, found him deeply concerned for his friends in Germany. Buchman told Stroh that he felt the Germans must now find their own way unassisted. 'He left us completely free, refusing to advise us what to do. He gave me some papers for Bishops Wurm and Meiser and some sandwiches for the journey. We did not see him again till 1946.'

Buchman had had very little contact with Moni von Cramon during this period. But early in 1938 he asked if she could come to Esbjerg in Denmark. Her daughter went with her, and describes the occasion: 'We met Frank on the ship sailing to England. He said to us, "War is coming, and we won't see each other for a very long time. You will go through hard times, but never forget, we are not alone." We knelt down and prayed, then we went back down to the quay and the ship went out, and Frank stood on the deck and made the sign of the Cross for us and for Europe, and that was the last we saw of him.' Frau von Cramon's son never returned from Stalingrad, and her son-in-law, Carl Ernst Rahtgens, a nephew of Field-Marshal von Kluge, was executed on Hitler's orders after the 'Generals' Plot'.

During the war the movement in Germany divided into three portions - some, like Bentinck, submitted to Himmler's demands; the majority, under a different name, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Seelsorge* carried on the work of changing people, without becoming involved in politics and always subject to surveillance; a third group could not accept either alternative. Some of these joined the active opposition.

(* Working Team for the Care of Souls.)

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