But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish. Psalm 9:18
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1945)
Anti-Nazi Resistance
Dietrich was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who stood against Nazi tyranny during World War Two. He was one of the first German Protestants to recognise the dangers of Nazism, and he believed that it was his Christian responsibility to challenge its evils. Dietrich knew that the cost would be great, but he did not shrink back, warning in a sermon in Berlin in 1932, “We must not be surprised if also for our Church there will be times again when the blood of martyrs will be called for.”
After Hitler came to power in 1933, Dietrich helped to organise the Pastors’ Emergency League, which developed into the Confessing Church of anti-Nazi German Protestants. He went on to found a clandestine seminary to train pastors for the anti-Nazi cause. As war became increasingly inevitable, friends arranged a lecture tour for Dietrich in America, hoping that he would stay there where he would be safe. But after just six weeks he decided to return to Germany. He became a member of the German resistance movement, convinced that this was the only way he could help save his country from Hitler.
In early 1943 Dietrich got engaged to Maria von Wedemeyer, but just three months later their plans were hijacked when he was arrested. Dietrich was placed in various prisons and concentration camps over a two-year period.
On 9 April 1945 he was hanged in Flossenburg concentration camp by the personal order of Heinrich Himmler, commander of the Nazi SS. As Dietrich was being led out to his death he said, “This is the end, for me the beginning of life.”
In me there is darkness,
But with thee there is light,
I am lonely, but thou leavest me not.
I am feeble in heart, but thou leavest me not.
I am restless, but with thee there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with thee there is patience;
Thy ways are past understanding, but
Thou knowest the way for me.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-45)