A recently released cinematic masterpiece tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and his role in the plot to take down the leader of the Nazi regime. While Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death by hanging, he did not die in vain. He lived a life defined by courage and love.
The opening scene conveys the strong bond not only between Bonhoeffer and his mother, which we see depicted throughout the movie, but also the influence that Dietrich’s older brother Walter, who was killed on the front lines, had on Dietrich’s life.
Bonhoeffer pursued theological studies at Union College in New York City. One could infer that Walter was the reason that Dietrich pursued theology, as after Martin’s passing, the movie depicts a scene in which their mother gave Dietrich his brother’s bible and relayed a message from Walter: “Tell my brother I underlined the good parts.”
It was while studying in America that Bonhoeffer’s eyes were first opened to the evils of racism, as he watched his African American classmates and friends be treated unjustly. Even Bonhoeffer himself was attacked and ridiculed for his association with them.
When he returned to Germany, the movie conveyed Bonhoeffer’s shock and outrage at what he saw happening to the church. He was appalled and distraught to see the church being invaded from within by Hitler’s regime.
What Bonhoeffer saw taking place when he returned was not only the destruction of the church from the inside but also racism on steroids. While African Americans in New York may have been ostracized and discriminated against by society, the German concentration camps were a direct result of Hitler’s hate for the Jews.
The movie depicts a scene in which Bonhoeffer preaches a sermon calling out the infiltration of the church from within and calling out his fellow leaders and pastors in the church for being blinded by Nazi propaganda. This scene depicts most of his colleagues walking out during his sermon, except one, Pastor Martin Niemöller.
Niemoller helped Bonhoeffer to establish and lead a seminary of the Confessing Church in Finkenwalde, Germany. The movie depicts a passionate scene where Niemöller preaches a risky-yet-courageous message from his pulpit, in which he explicitly calls out the Gestapo and the Nazi regime. This scene depicts the Gestapo getting up and walking out in the middle of his sermon and later coming to his house to arrest him.
Bonhoeffer eventually left the safety of the seminary to return to civilization, where he preached the truth from the pulpit about how the church was being invaded from the inside. Hitler declared Confessing seminaries illegal in 1937, and the seminary was closed by the Gestapo. Bonhoeffer was away at the time, but the students were forced into uniforms either for the concentration camps or the military.
This film effortlessly conveys the emotion behind the story, as we watch Bonhoeffer’s heartbreak not only as he watches the church he so deeply loved destroyed from within but also to watch the Jewish people attacked and imprisoned across Germany.
In an effort to take down Hitler, Bonhoeffer went undercover as a spy in the Nazi regime to help execute a plan to assassinate Hitler. While Bonhoeffer assisted in hatching the plan, he fled to America while the plan was put into action. However, he soon realized that God was calling him back to Germany to a fight he could no longer hide from. Not long after returning to Germany, he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to a concentration camp in Flossenbürg, where he was executed.
“Every act of courage comes with a cost; I made mine 12 years ago,” said Bonhoeffer the night before his execution. He was executed by hanging on April 9, 1945. Just two weeks later, Hitler committed suicide.
This movie beautifully conveys the powerful message behind the life and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and what it means for us today, so much so that words on a screen are but a feeble attempt to convey the emotion behind this film.
Bonhoeffer may have died too soon, but his legacy will continue. May his life inspire us to live with the courage and love that defined him.
Oct. 7 has been called “the deadliest attack on the Jews since the Holocaust” or “the Black Sabbath.” This attack shook the foundations of the earth and sent the Middle East spiraling into turmoil and conflict, sending shock waves across the globe.
When the Twin Towers fell in 2001, America said, “Never Again.” This should have been the cry of every American on Oct. 8 as well.
But instead, we saw the opposite, with an outpouring of animosity, rather than sympathy for Jews. More than 10,000 antisemitic incidents have been recorded since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, more than any other year on record since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking in 1979.
Perhaps this movie will inspire the Bonhoeffers of this generation to have the courage to speak out.
First they came for the Communists
Pastor Martin Niemöller
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
This film was a product of Angel Studios, directed and written by Todd Komarnicki, starring Jonas Dassler (Bonhoeffer) and August Diehl (Martin Niemoller).