North American Baptist Immigration and Colonization Society : German Canadian Baptists became active in immigration work in 1925 with the organization of the German Baptist Immigration and Colonization Society. Co-operating with both the C.P.R. and the C.N.R., the association was active in finding a new home for thousands of the German-speaking Baptists, who fled the political upheavals of Eastern Europe to find temporary refuge in refugee camps in Germany. With the onset of the Depression, this organization ceased its activities.
World War II had scarcely ended when German Baptist churches in Canada became active in relief work in Germany, in particular among the several million German-speaking refugees and expellees, who were crowding the refugee camps of Germany and Austria. The relief work had just begun, when it was decided by German Canadian Baptists that the best way to resolve Germany's overpopulation problem was through emigration. With this end in mind, the Canadian Farm Aid and Settlement Association was established, largely at the behest of Wm. Sturhahn and H. Streuber, two Manitobans active in relief work in Germany. The association, however, was hampered from the beginning by its lack of financial resources and did little more than lay out a strategy for an immigration program.
In 1950, the Relief Committee of the Baptist World Alliance, in co-operation with the World Council of Churches, undertook to support the immigration work of German Canadian Baptists. To carry out this work Baptist World Alliance Immigration was organized, with its headquarters in Winnipeg and an office in Stuttgart which served largely to process immigrants. Immigration work continued to be carried on under the name Baptist World Alliance Immigration until January, 1954, when this organization disappeared in name as well as in fact. The North American Baptist Immigration and Colonization Society (1953-1980) then took direct responsibility for German Canadian Baptist immigration work.
Baptist World Alliance Immigration and the North American Baptist Immigration and Colonization Society were essentially the same organization with a different name. Both had their head office in Winnipeg, with William Sturhahn as secretary responsible for the overall planning of the immigration work.
