Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Opponent of the Nazi Regime

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In solitary confinement, he found true freedom.

Gestapo agents knocked heavily on the outside door.  In an upstairs bedroom, a man wiped sweat from hi face and dropped a match into the wastebasket.  Only after seeing the contents burn did he calmly give each member of his family a brief hug and leave with the men in dark coats.  It was April in 1943 in Nazi Germany.  It was the last time Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw his family as a free man.

Pastor, professor, on of the twentieth century’s most brilliant minds–Dietrich Bonhoeffer was also soon to be a martyr.  After struggling with the moral issues involved, he had joined the resistance to his country’s dictator, Adolf Hitler.  Now he was on his way to solitary confinement.  But Dietrich Bonhoeffer was never truly alone in his concrete cell, because the Lord was with him.  Anchoring his daily life in the simple disciplines of Bible study and prayer, he used his time to ponder and write on deep spiritual issues.

In April 1945, just a few weeks before World War II ended in Europe, the Nazis hanged Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He had written, “the cost of discipleship”–and paid that cost with is life.  His investment, though, continues to pay dividends today for those who follow his example.