Church bells melted for cannon (Russia after 1700; Nazi-occupied Europe, 1939–45)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1700 · Places: Europe
SUMMARYChurch bells melted for cannon (Russia after 1700; Nazi-occupied Europe, 1939–45) [Connections: Masonic color line, asylums, castles, wight, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDHistory Today says that after the defeat at Narva (1700), Peter the Great was "melting down church bells to make new artillery." A 2015 Musicology Now post, reporting UC Berkeley scholar Carla Shapreau's research, says Nazi authorities confiscated roughly 175,000 bells to be melted for armaments. In the Netherlands, "of the approximately 9,000 bells... an estimated 6,500 were seized, with approximately 1,840 returned after the war." It also says "The newer bells were the first to the smelter," and shows plundered bells on the Hamburg docks in August 1945
PATTERNIn war, the state takes the church's bronze for guns
LENS (WW9)Calls to prayer were melted into guns
OPENThe size of Peter's levy, and the World War I bell requisitions in Germany and Austria, need primary decrees. Check the 175,000 figure against Shapreau's published work
SOURCEHistory Today: The Battle of Narva; Musicology Now: The Pillage of Europe's Bells (2015).