The Pastor Who Defied Hitler - on PBS

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

February 3, 2006

The Pastor Who Defied Hitler
By NANCY DEWOLF SMITH
February 3, 2006; Page W10

The Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is not the most famous German who opposed Hitler; and the manner of his death -- he was hanged by the Gestapo at Flossenburg prison on April 5, 1945 -- was not uniquely horrible in that horrendous time. One of the things that makes him stand out is that he left a detailed record, in books, letters and public statements, of the decisions with which he struggled when confronted with Nazi evil.

The PBS documentary "Bonhoeffer" can only brush the surface of these questions. (Monday 10-11 p.m., ET; check local listings.) Yet there is enough to drive home the realization that while most of us face less daunting challenges today, many of the moral issues with which Bonhoeffer wrestled infuse our own lives as well.

Born in 1906, Bonhoeffer studied to become a pastor in a post-World War I church in crisis. Germany's Protestants, like its Catholics, had claimed that God was on their side in the conflict; and defeat, plus the horrors of war, had left the public cynical about religion. Studying in Berlin in 1924, Bonhoeffer came under the influence of the Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who rejected the notion of a "tribal" God and argued that Christ exists in community, in the way people treat each other. Bonhoeffer's spiritual education continued at New York's Union Theological Seminary in 1930, where he met the French pacifist Jean Lasserre. Lasserre took as his guide Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and he sought to live by a literal interpretation of its phrases, including "love thine enemy" and "blessed are the poor." Teaching in a church in Harlem, Bonhoeffer saw many of these concepts in action, in a congregation that formed what he called true community, and experienced "rapture in Christ."

All of this helped shape his response after he returned to Germany in 1931 and witnessed the rise of Hitler. Bonhoeffer went on the radio to disparage the idea of a leader who makes an idol of himself. He told fellow pastors that the message of the gospels commanded them to stand with Jews and suggested that aiding victims of a state would not be enough; Christians, he said, must be prepared to "jam a spoke in the wheel" of oppression itself.

(snip)


URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113892885186363934.html (subscription)

[left is right]

1. I am a big admirer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I have no doubt that he would not only see through * but stand up and call him and his whole maladministration evil. Why are there no ministers today that can see him for what he truly s?

[liberalhistorian]

2. I've also always been one of his

admirers; I'm always fascinated by people who have the courage to stand up for the right principles the way he did, even though they know the tremendous, horrendous cost they will suffer when they do. In the end, those like Bonhoeffer are the ones who are remembered, honored, and admired, and their legacy endures long after they have paid the price. Such people are badly needed in every society, but all too rare, unfortunately.

Bonhoeffer is an especially good example of this. He could have chosen to remain in the USA and and be safe from what was going down in Germany, but he knew it was important to take a stand against the great, dangerous evil of the nazis and what they were doing and planned to continue doing. Every society needs a Bonhoeffer.

[question everything]

3. Yes. And this is why it saddens me when I hear people

threatening to leave the country if the Republicans continue to hold their choke hold, or say they will stay at home if their candidates is not the Democratic one.

It takes more courage to stay and fight then to just give up.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. That's a good documentary

[timtom]

12. Bad question.

There are many. Google Jim Wallis, for one.
Or, try this link http://www.hostdiva.com/liberalchristians/ for another.

[DerekG]

13. Precisely.

The better question would be: Why doesn't the mainstream media cover these prophetic Christians?

Naturally, we all the answer.

[JDPriestly]

4. I think Bonhoefer was great as long as he remained a pacifist,

which, I believe is what Jesus was and advised others to be. He made a huge mistake when he participated in the attempt in Hitler's life that ended so badly and led to Bonhoefer's death.

[DerekG]

6. It's precarious, to be sure

On one hand, I agree that to take up arms is to essentially ignore all of Christ's admonishments against violence and revenge, but then, the prophetic Christians who resorted to violence--like Bonhoeffer and the abolitionist John Brown--did so out of concern for the "least of their brothers."

I find it hard to believe that the Lord would take greater umbrage with men such as these, than those who staked neutral positions.

But I don't know.

[liberalhistorian]

10. True enough. Bonhoeffer

agonized greatly over whether or not to play any role in the assassination plan, as is evidenced from his writings. But he also knew that God allowed fighting back in order to defend the defenseless and protect the weak and prevent greater evil from taking hold, and he knew he couldn't live with himself and would have trouble facing God if he didn't at least help to try to stop Hitler's further commission of evil.

But he did, indeed, agonize over that. I have no doubt that God not only understood, but gave him the strength to continue his opposition to and brave stance against the horror of the nazis.

[Kellanved]

7. It's a little unfair to say "the".

Just to add a Catholic clergyman: Bernhard Lichtenberg


...
Under the impression of the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9/10 November 1938, while the German churches – including the dissident Confessing Church – kept their silence in face of the vicious attack upon the Jews, L. was the only Church man to raise his voice publicly and fearlessly against Nazi brutality.



“We know what happened yesterday, we do not know what lies in store for us tomorrow. But we have experienced what has happened today: Outside burns the temple. This is also a place of worship.

<"Was gestern war,wissen wir. Was morgen ist, wissen wir nicht. Aber was heute geschehen ist, haben wir erlebt: Draußen brennt der Tempel. Das ist auch ein Gotteshaus."’>



From that evening until his arrest on 23 October 1941, L. continued to pray daily from his pulpit in the St Hedwig Cathedral for the both Jews and Jewish Christians as well as other victims of the regime. After the outbreak of war, L. prepared an application addressed to the Berliner Luftschutzleiter (the person responsible for air raid shelters) protesting against the racial segregation in the air shelters decreed by the order from 14 December 1939..
...


In May 1942, the Berlin District Court sentenced L. to two year imprisonment on account of abuse of the pulpit <“Kanzleimißbrauchs”> and insidious activity. <“Heimtücke”> . ‘Asked if he had anything to add, L. said - according to the trial transcript - : “I submit that no harm results to the state by citizens who pray for the Jews.”’ <“Befragt, ob er selber noch etwas zur Verteidigung auszuführen habe, äußert L. laut Urteilsprotokoll: „Ich gebe der Überzeugung Ausdruck, dass der Staat durch einen für die Juden betenden Bürger keinen Schade erleide“.>

Towards the end of L.’s two year prison term, Bishop Prysing of Berlin visited him at the Tegel prison and delivered to him the proposal of the Gestapo that they would allow him to remain free if he promised to refrain from preaching for the duration of the war. However, L. asked instead to be allowed to accompany the deported Jews and Jewish Christians to Lodz/Poland in order to serve there as a pastoral minister. Prysing, who was deeply worried about L.’s failing state of health tried in vain to dissuade him from the idea.



In face of L’s unyielding opposition, the Nazi security service ordered his internment in the Dachau concentration camp.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/bycountry/germany/bernhard.html

[JDPriestly]

8. Unfortunately, the leadership of the Catholic and protestant

churches of the era were silent and therefore complicit in Hitler's actions. The Catholic Church did not close the last anti-Jewish shrines in Austria until either the late 1970s or early 1980s. Trust me, antisemitism is alive and well in the Christian religion including the Catholic Church today in spite of the belated efforts of the Church hierarchy to make happy faces to the Jews.

[ComerPerro]

9. What a bad Christian. The Christian right would have hated him

[liberalhistorian]

11. Yes, indeed, they

would have, wouldn't they? That's because they've never actually read, much less practiced, the New Testament.

As a matter of fact, many conservative churches directly aided the nazis and approved of their goals, including in the "final solution"; with the head of the Lutheran church calling Jews "swine" and saying that God would approve of their helping to remove such "swine" from the earth (I'm not making that up)!