Bonhoeffer

​In Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy author Eric Metaxas traces the riveting story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, exploring one of the darkest episodes in human history. The rise of Nazi Germany is seen through the eyes and life of a young man who grows from a highly acclaimed, though inexperienced, academic theologian in his native Germany in 1930 to a deeply committed and involved Christian activist. In 1933 Bonhoeffer was one of the first to raise a public voice against Adolf Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. Subjected to increasing demands to stop preaching against the government and expounding his traitorous views, in 1939 Bonhoeffer went into exile in the U.S. to avoid taking an oath to Adolf Hitler, but chose to return to Germany later that year saying, “I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.” Bonhoeffer was arrested and charged with helping Jews escape persecution, among other crimes of subversion. He was imprisoned for over a year and finally executed for his perceived part in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in April 1945, just weeks before the surrender of Germany. He was 39.