Free Republic

Seekers of peace and social justice should take note of today's 100th birthday celebration of the life of German theologian and Nazi resister Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As much as anyone - and as early as anyone - Bonhoeffer spoke out against the wickedness of Adolf Hitler's regime and took some of the most significant actions to thwart it. It was Bonhoeffer and a small circle of Lutheran ministers who first condemned the virulent anti-Semitism and reawakened militarism in Germany. It was Bonhoeffer who most loudly denounced his country's suicidal summons for war. It was Bonhoeffer who attacked the timidity of German...

On April 9, 1945, 65 years ago today, just a few weeks before an allied offensive brought Germany to its knees and ended World War II in Europe, a young, mild-mannered Lutheran theologian was hanged by the Nazis in Flossenburg Concentration Camp. His crime ... conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological genius of the 20th century, is now emerging as a war hero, martyr and spy. "What is so amazing about the story of Bonhoeffer is that he puts a completely different spin for us as Americans on World War II," says Eric Metaxas, author of "Bonhoeffer:...