On this
date, April 9, 1945, six German Resistance Members were executed by hanging at
Flossenbürg concentration camp. One of them was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As
the German Resistance had inspired the comrades of Unit 1012, let us not forget
them and remember them as heroes who stood against evil.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer on
saving lives
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Bonhoeffer, the Priest Who Defied Hitler, Is Executed
Posted By: Daryl WorthingtonPosted
date: April 07, 2016
Since the
earliest days of the Nazi regime Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of its most vocal
and defiant opponents. On the 9th April, 1945, with the regime collapsing and
military defeat inevitable, it showed it was still capable of vicious
suppression. Bonhoeffer was hanged at Flossenburg, days before the POW camp was
liberated by American forces.
Born in
Breslau, Germany, in 1906, Bonhoeffer was raised in an nonreligious family with
a strong artistic and musical heritage. Despite displaying a natural talent for
music from a young age, he unexpectedly decided at fourteen that he wanted to
train to be a priest.
He
graduated from the University of Berlin in 1927, with a doctorate in theology.
He spent several years living and working in Spain and the USA, gaining
practical experience of how the messages of the Bible could be applied in the
real world. In particular, he developed a belief that the Church could act in
issues of social justice, and as a defender of the oppressed.
Aged 25 he
returned to Germany and was ordained a priest. His return coincided with a
tumultuous time, the Great Depression had seen unemployment soar, while the
Weimar Government seemed increasingly incapable of handling the situation. It
was the perfect atmosphere for the rise of the Nazi party.
Hitler
became chancellor of Germany in 1933. Two days later, Bonhoeffer launched his
first protest, taking to the airwaves to denounce Hitler’s leadership. The
broadcast was cut before Bonhoeffer could finish. The event set two precedents,
Bonhoeffer’s willingness to publicly challenge Nazi rule, and the Nazi
administration’s readiness to silence that criticism as soon as possible.
With the
exception of an eighteen month period during which he served as pastor to two
German congregations in London, Bonhoeffer remained a thorn in the side of
Hitler’s regime. In particular, from his return to Germany in 1935 onward, he
was a key figure in the Confessing Church, a Protestant movement which had
broken away from the main German church with the aim of keeping religion
independent of the regime.
As the years wore on the Nazi regime
became increasingly intolerant. In 1936, Bonhoeffer had his right to lecture or
publish revoked after being denounced as a pacifist and enemy of the state. In
1937, the Confessing Church was closed down on the orders of Heinrich Himmler,
forcing Bonhoeffer to conduct his teachings in secrecy.
After a brief stay in the USA in 1939,
where Bonhoeffer considered seeking long term refuge from the Nazis, he decided
to return to his home in the hopes of aiding in liberating it from oppression,
or at least suffering alongside his countrymen. Bonhoeffer became increasingly
vocal about both the Nazis’ antisemitic policies, and the church’s response to
them. “…the Church was silent when it should have cried out because the blood
of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven. She is guilty of the deaths of the
weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ.”
Bonhoeffer joined the German
resistance movement, and along with his accomplices, helped Jews escape Nazi
Germany to neutral Switzerland. He became a central figure in the resistance,
flying to Sweden in 1942 in an attempt to negotiate peace with the Allied
powers. Ultimately however, in 1943, he was caught and captured by the Gestapo
for his role in helping Jews escape the Nazi’s wrath.
The resistance carried on without
Bonhoeffer, of course, and this ultimately led to his execution. Following the
failed attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944, the Gestapo launched a fine
toothed investigation of the resistance movement. Documents were discovered
linking Bonhoeffer with those behind the assassination plot, and he was
promptly sentenced to death following a court martial.
Waiting for his execution at
Flossenburg, Bonhoeffer is said to have continued acting as a counselor and
pastor to other prisoners. In the years since his death, he has become a brave
icon of defiance in the face of great oppression, while his theological works
remain influential to this day.
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