Heroic Prisoners of Nazi Germany: the stories of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Sophie Scholl Oliver Dickens (C2 Hu) The Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler dominated Germany from January 1933 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. When we consider the atrocities that the Party committed, opposition was scarce. Indeed, the intuitive mind of Joseph Goebbels covered up many of such atrocities with the use of propaganda; yet, Bonhoeffer and Scholl proved that the appetite for a free democratic society remained. The acts of defiance they performed merit the heroic status they have today.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 to a Protestant upper-middle-class family. At the age of 14, he decided he wanted to become a Lutheran pastor; before being ordained, he studied and taught in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. It was at this time that Bonhoeffer was exposed to social and racial injustice. He observed the division and oppression of factions of the Christian Church, and this persuaded him to embrace ecumenism (the practice of bringing Christian factions together). His interest in ecumenism eventually proved to be invaluable to the German resistance. Throughout his short life during the Nazi regime, Bonheffer performed many acts of defiance. Only a few days after Hitler’s rise to power, he gave a damning address on radio. His main message to the German people was that the Führer (Hitler) would one day become the Verführer (seducer): this was the first instance of resistance from the Church. At this time, the Deutsche Christen (Nazi-influenced) faction of the German protestant Church was rapidly gaining power. In September 1933, the Aryan paragraph was approved, effectively removing any pastors and officials with Jewish blood from their posts. Bonhoeffer immediately joined the Pfarrenotbund (Pastor’s Emergency League), which later became the Confessing Church: with support from around 20-25% of German Pastors, Bonhoeffer and others engineered the ‘Barmen Declaration’ which stated that Christ was the head of the Protestant Church, not the Führer. However, Bonhoeffer became resigned to the fact that the Confessing Church didn’t have the power to rid Nazi influence from the Church. He even said, ‘it was time to go into the desert for a while’, before moving to London for a two-year position at a German church. Although he still encouraged people to oppose the Nazi regime, his influence was insubstantial – he felt guilty throughout his two-year stay in London and his short visit to America in 1939. This guilt shaped Bonhoeffer’s conscience, and he realised action had to be taken to stop further Nazi oppression of the Church. On his return to Germany in 1935, Bonhoeffer bravely continued his vital work, as his fellow members of the Confessing Church were being arrested around him. Bonhoeffer himself was affected by the intense Nazi suppression of the Confessing Church. His teaching licence at Berlin University was revoked, and he was branded “an enemy of the state. Thus, his mission to teach was made more difficult after a decree to make the education of Confessing Church ministers illegal was passed. Therefore, up to the start of the Second World War, Bonhoeffer continued to teach in secret. In February 1938, Bonhoeffer began down the path of more substantial resistance. He contacted members of the German Resistance who informed him of the imminent war in Europe. During these discussions, Bonhoeffer learnt that joining the military intelligence (Abwehr) was the only way to avoid conscription, and this allowed him to continue his teaching. He joined his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnányi, who was an active member of many plots to assassinate Hitler in the early stages of the war. He used his privileges to travel and helped Dohnányi by contacting allied representatives. Bonhoeffer realised that there were factions in Germany that wanted to overthrow Hitler, and sought their help; however, the Allies were uninterested in such initiatives. Thus, Bonhoeffer had to explore other avenues of resistance. Bonhoeffer eventually joined his brother-in-law in planning ‘Operation Seven’, his most notable act of resistance. The Operation facilitated the escape of 14 Jews to Switzerland in the autumn of 1942. Bonhoeffer was integral in supplying funds and resources to the escapees during this time. However, the Gestapo caught wind of the transfers Bonhoeffer made and arrested him and his brother-in-law in April 1943. 29
