Pentapod reviewed Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
Review of 'Bonhoeffer' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
"Only he who cries out for the Jews may sing Gregorian chants." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Picked this biography up as an audiobook and it was an interesting listen. Having grown up mostly hearing the history of WWII from the English perspective, I'm only recently learning more details of the brave Germans who tried from within to resist and overthrow the Nazis.
During the war Churchill deliberately chose to ignore their efforts and paint all Germans as evil Nazis for propaganda reasons, and to some extent that's the image that prevails to this day. But there were Germans horrified by what was happening, there were several assassination attempts from within, and many good people and their families were tortured and executed in retaliation when these failed. The Bonhoeffer family was one of those heavily involved in the resistance, and the youngest son Dietrich was especially prescient about the evils to come. …
"Only he who cries out for the Jews may sing Gregorian chants." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Picked this biography up as an audiobook and it was an interesting listen. Having grown up mostly hearing the history of WWII from the English perspective, I'm only recently learning more details of the brave Germans who tried from within to resist and overthrow the Nazis.
During the war Churchill deliberately chose to ignore their efforts and paint all Germans as evil Nazis for propaganda reasons, and to some extent that's the image that prevails to this day. But there were Germans horrified by what was happening, there were several assassination attempts from within, and many good people and their families were tortured and executed in retaliation when these failed. The Bonhoeffer family was one of those heavily involved in the resistance, and the youngest son Dietrich was especially prescient about the evils to come. Through this biography of Dietrich the author paints a picture of the situation in Germany for those horrified by Hitler's actions, and lays out the failures and frustrations of the resistance.
Bonhoeffer was a pastor and theologian so this biography is fairly heavy on the aspects of his faith, but not in a way that detracts from the story. Whether you share Bonhoeffer's faith or not, his dedication to it is clearly admirable and his faith led him very clearly to see before most how wrong the Nazis were and how much worse it would get if not stopped. He worked tirelessly to get German Christians to denounce the Nazi version of "Christianity", spread the word of what was really happening through his church contacts in England, and supported the plot to kill Hitler. He was clearly a remarkable thinker and man of faith, and through his writings and letters this biography reveals both the man himself and the circumstances and tragedies of his life.
