Abstract
The Protestant theologian and resistance figure Dietrich Bonhoeffer is often portrayed as a hero of the Holocaust, particularly in popular films and literature. Much of the academic literature also assumes a clear relationship between his concern for the Jewish victims of Nazism, his theology, and his participation in the German resistance. A counter-narrative exists, however, which focuses on the anti-Judaism in his writings and contends that a heroic portrait of Bonhoeffer is simplistic and that Bonhoeffer’s significance for post-Holocaust thought is tenuous at best. A key problem here is the volume and complexity of the relevant historical and theological material. The thesis of this essay is that only an in-depth understanding of his theology as a dialogue with the historical complexities of his times can offer insights into his potential contribution to post-Holocaust thought. This essay will review the most salient theological and historical points, focusing on two often overlooked topics: 1) his actual role not only in the German resistance but in the larger ecumenical resistance network that helped Jews across Europe and 2) his own very concrete reflections on guilt, leading to his conviction of the necessity for a different self-understanding among Christians â and a different kind of Christianity â in a post-Nazi world. His experience under Nazism and in the resistance led to a radical reformulation of Christian identity that may be relevant for post-Holocaust theology.
Highlights
In April 2001 I received a request from Dr Mordecai Paldiel, Director of the Department for the Righteous at Yad Vashem, to submit an opinion on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s qualifications for the honor of being designated a “righteous gentile.”
Dr Paldiel raised three central questions: 1) the question of Bonhoeffer’s public opposition to the Nazi antiJewish measures, not just on behalf of those who had converted to Christianity but on behalf of all Jews; 2) the question of whether Bonhoeffer ever aided Jews directly; and 3) the issue of Bonhoeffer’s theological anti-Judaism and, whether Bonhoeffer ever explicitly repudiated his 1933 writings that reflected this anti-Judaism
Even in the earliest days of the Nazi regime we have the evidence that I think is characteristic both of his early opposition and his eventual move to the resistance: of a strong civil libertarian streak, unique within German Protestantism but apparently quite consistent with his upbringing and the Bonhoeffer family views. It is in “The Church and the Jewish Question” that we find these two aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thought joined: a traditional theological anti-Judaism, juxtaposed with a clear political conviction that the church must oppose the state’s measures against its Jewish citizens
Summary
If we look only at the cases in which Bonhoeffer was approached directly, we have a paper trail of isolated instances, and it is often unclear, during his time in London, as to whether these were Jews who had converted to Christianity or not.[7] There is Bonhoeffer’s letter of July 13, 1934, to Reinhold Niebuhr in the United States, asking for Niebuhr’s help for two refugees who wanted to emigrate from Nazi Germany: a Jewish law student and Social Democrat named Kurt Berlowitz, and the political dissident Armin Wegner (who was later honored by Yad Vashem).[8] There are references by Bonhoeffer, George Bell, and others to his efforts on behalf of refugees during his time in London, from October 1933 to April 1935. Bonhoeffer’s motivation in these efforts is clear in his letter to Reinhold
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