Bonhoeffer's soul shone in the dark desperation of prison
Bonhoeffer died because he tried to stop Hitler.
BUCHENWALD was among the first and largest of the German concentration camps. Although it was not officially an extermination camp, a large number of its inmates died from overwork and starvation, or by execution, torture, and cruel experiments.
On this day 7 February 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was transferred from Tegel to Buchenwald. A Lutheran minister, he had been arrested for working with the underground resistance and helping Jews to safety. He was the only prisoner in one of the twelve cells in a basement. Each of the other cells was occupied by one or two prisoners. Bonhoeffer was there seven weeks, enduring cold and hunger. Pete Best, a fellow prisoner, wrote, “His soul really shone in the dark desperation of our prison.”
In April, German authorities learned that Bonhoeffer was also involved in a plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer reasoned that the Führer was like a madman “driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders.” Such a man, he concluded, could be killed for the sake of the nation.
As a foe of Hitler, his doom was now sealed. Days before the allies freed the inmates of Buchenwald, the Germans transferred him to Flossenbürg. The Nazis hanged him within hours of his arrival, but Bonhoeffer went to his death with peace. Suffering, he said, had become a better key for understanding the world than happiness had ever been.
His death would not have happened if it had not been for his conscience. At the start of World War II, he had been safe in America. By his own choice he returned to his native Germany, saying, “I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I did not share in the trials of this time with my people. Christians in Germany face the terrible alternative of willing the defeat of their nation in order that civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in security.”
Bonhoeffer’s noble words and daring actions were completely in keeping with his book The Cost of Discipleship in which he wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die” and “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
—Dan Graves
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Christian History devoted a magazine to Bonhoeffer and Vision Video carries several documentaries about him. Here are some.
Christian History #32, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologian in Nazi Germany
Videos about Bonhoeffer to watch at RedeemTV
Bonhoeffer - Agent of Grace can be purchased at Vision Video
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Memories And Perspectives
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Memories And Perspectives can be purchased at Vision Video