In Memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On this day in history:

On April 9th, 1945 German Christian pastor, writer, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by his captors at the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp near the Czech border in Germany.

The concentration camp Bonhoeffer was martyed at was liberated just two weeks later by Allied forces.

Bonhoeffer was only 39 years old at the time.

An eye-witness to the execution later wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

via Drive Thru History https://www.facebook.com/drivethruhistory