Who would dare to say, "No!" to Hitler? (a book review)

     Twenty five years ago or so, my wife and I stood in a quiet forest near a quaint German village named Flossenburg.  The sun was shining through the evergreen branches.  It was a somewhat warm day, but cool in the shadows.  We were standing on the grounds of a former concentration camp.  Not as famous as Buchenwald and Auschwitz, but just as deadly, more than forty years before.

     On April 9, 1945, only thirteen days before a U.S. armored cavalry column liberated this camp, a man was executed, partially for his role in a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler's life, nine months before.  He was moved only a day or two before, from Tegel Prison in Berlin, specifically to be executed.  The day he died, an SS doctor, who witnessed his removal from his cell and movement to the location where he was hanged reported, "In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."

     Who was this man who so impressed a doctor in the SS, hardly even a nominal Christian, with his life and his death?  Who was this man, who fearlessly proclaimed the love of Jesus Christ to every man and woman, even to and especially to Jewish people, during the brief reign of one of the most famous haters of the Jewish race in modern history?  Who was this man who in his sermons and in his life, stood against the prevailing attitudes in pre World War II Germany, who time and time again, battled not only the Jewish haters of record, like Heinrich Himmler, Martin Borman and Reinhard Heydrich, but also stood against the efforts of the German "Christian" Church, aka the "Reich Church?"

He was born into an upper middle class German family in 1906.  His father was the most prominent
neurologist and also a psychiatrist in early 20th century Germany.  His mother was a well educated teacher who home schooled her children during their early years.  Between the two families, their ancestors contained many illustrious doctors, pastors, judges, professors, lawyers, artists and artisans, musicians and even theologians. His mother also had ties to the emperor's court in Potsdam. 

He was one of eight children, one of whom was his twin, born ten minutes later.  He teased his twin sister about this all their lives.  Who was this man and why did he have such a large impact on history, or....did he?

His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The name "Bonhoeffer" means "bean farmer" in German.  Not exactly the name I would pick if I were picking a hero.  Yet, this man amply illustrated the character and example of a life well lived, if short lived.  I will continue this book review in a future blog, because I have not yet finished the book. 

     "Bonhoffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" is available for purchase on http://www.inhishonor.org/.  For those of you who enjoy a well documented biography, this is an excellent read.  Only 542 pages.  One of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's best known writings, " Sanctorum Communio", which was actually his doctoral thesis written after observing the workings of the Vatican, is also available on http://www.inhishonor.org/ along with other books both by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.