On this day in 1945, Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged at Flossenburg, only days before the American liberation of the POW camp. The last words of the brilliant and courageous 39-year-old opponent of Nazism were “This is the end–for me, the beginning of life.”
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Two days after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, lecturer at Berlin University, took to the radio and denounced the Nazi Fuhrerprinzip, the leadership principle that was merely a synonym for dictatorship. Bonhoeffer’s broadcast was cut off before he could finish. Shortly thereafter, he moved to London to pastor a German congregation, while also giving support to the Confessing Church movement in Germany, a declaration by Lutheran and evangelical pastors and theologians that they would not have their churches co-opted by the Nazi government for propagandistic purposes.
Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1935 to run a seminary for the Confessing Church; the government closed it in 1937. Bonhoeffer’s continued vocal objections to Nazi policies resulted in his losing his freedom to lecture or publish. He soon joined the German resistance movement, even the plot to assassinate Hitler. In April 1943, shortly after becoming engaged to be married, Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo.
Evidence implicating him in the plot to overthrow the government came to light and he was court-martialed and sentenced to die. While in prison, he acted as a counselor and pastor to prisoners of all denominations. Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison was published posthumously. Among his celebrated works of theology are The Cost of Discipleship and Ethics.
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
When my family and I toured KZ camp Flossenburg the silence is eerily disconcerting. I couldn’t wrap my brain around how such an idyllic towns past could harbor such grievous acts. My mind pushed me to denial of the reality before me. I think it must be some neuroprotective response? Did it really happen? These places exist today as a reminder of the brutality of man and a forced realization these events did indeed occur. That it happened should be warning enough to fight whenever and wherever freedoms are being abridged.
World War 1 was the great tragedy, WW2 was the inevitable consequence of the first war. One in which the arrogant, detached powers that be thought it would be fun and tactful to go to war. Looking at the headlines today, we are more in a pre WW1 era than a pre WW2 era.
The end of WW1 meant the birth of the Soviet Union, Naziism, Mussolini, and every other Post-Christian ethos. The Treaty of Versailles was the birth certificate of a demonic future, which murdered many a Bonhoeffer (a true saint) for standing up to it.
One can really say that in 2018, we are still fighting WW1, unable to piece together the shards of civilization. The Orange man will likely take us to war, but the muff diver would have too. Only when it’s all ashes will be understand what we had.