Posted on 06/18/2004 12:59:32 PM PDT by mrustow
I would tend to think the letter was a fraud for a couple reasons.
1. I'm fairly certain the Bonhoeffer and Niemoller communicated a good deal during the 30's about what was happening in Germany and what the response of the church should be. Bonhoeffer took a stand against Hitler early on and publicly denounced (on radio I believe) the eugenics (against the handicapped etc) program and other "cleansing" movements that Hitler was instituting. It's hard to believe Niemoeller would have supported the Nazis in such things given their relationship and Bonhoeffer's stand. They were both instrumental in the Confessing Church movement.
2. If the Nazis could have enlisted Niemoeller in the military I have to believe they would have jumped all over it. For this noisy pastor to have been shown joining the German Army would have been an enormous coup and given real legitimacy to what the Nazis were doing. Niemoeller publicly defied Hitler to his face amongst a group of other pastors when Hitler was attempting to co-opt the churches and was seen as a real rabble rouser.
3. Given the fact that Niemoeller had been arrested by the Germans 6 times by 1937 indicates his resistance early on.
It's hard to believe that given his relationships, arrest record, public confrontation with Hitler and 7 year imprisonment that he agreed with the Nazis on much of anything. I'm certain that just as with Bonhoeffer (who like Niemoeller deeply loved Germany) he attempted to exhaust all possibilites in working with his government, but ultimately it became clear what he was up against and what he would have to do.
Uh yeah. I was being silly. I had thought it was pretty obvious..
Read #79.
If you are right, then you will be able to point out where the writer lied. Otherwise, I will have to wrote you off as just another blowhard on a barstool.
Movement on floor laughter my a-- off!
---Otherwise, I will have to wrote you off as just another blowhard on a barstool.---
That's rich coming from someone who posts an article claiming a dead man who was arrested 6 times by the Gestapo and held in Nazi prisons for 7 years, was a Nazi sympathizer, and then defends the article as if it was holy writ!
Hmmm... interesting. Thanks for the ping, glad I didn't respond with my typical reflex. :-)
One of the reasons I am so found on Deitrich Bonhoffer is the fact that he had a chance ot stay in the US when he came here for a visit ( I think in 1939). People urged him not to go back but he went back anyway and was involved in some of the effort to get rid of Hitler early...That makes it easier and as you mention his writings are substantial from his time in prison ....
read post #81...
Bump in honor of Bonhoeffer and the Confessors.
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