"The Righteous Among the Nations": Bonhoeffer, Yad Vashem and the Church

Abstract

In 1986, twenty-three years after establishing the Righteous Among the Nations project, Yad Vashem brought down the first of its many decisions to deny the title to the martyred Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As recently as October 2003, when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the summary of the reasons behind the committee's rejection could be published, Yad Vashem has consistently maintained that Bonhoeffer falls outside the scope of the legal definition. While he does deserve recognition as a meritorious fighter against the Nazi regimeaccording to Mordecai Paldiel, he was "one ofthe good guys"l -Bonhoeffer simply does not fit the criteria of righteous, as established by the Yad Vashem Law (5713/1953) of August 1953. Curiously, Bonhoeffer's own ecclesiastical authorities adopted a similar stance during the Nazi era. As Victoria Barnett has noted, neither Bonhoeffer's nor Niemoeller's names were included in churches' weekly Fürbittenlisten because their resistance was deemed to be political rather than theological. As far as the bishops were concerned, Bonhoeffer did not deserve prayerful intercession within the context of corporate worship, as his imprisonment had nothing to do with his faith. The intent of this article is neither to argue against Yad Vashem's decision (with which I nonetheless disagree), nor to explore the ecclesiastical-political context which gave rise to the general malaise from which the German churches suffered during the Nazi period. Rather, this paper will suggest that Bonhoeffer's reflections on the Beatitudes provide a more appropriate paradigm of ~hKawcruVll (righteousness) and correlative ethical praxis than either the Church or Yad Vashem have to date permitted. The key texts that will be considered are Nachfolge, Ethics, Letters and Papers from Prison — and, of course, the text of Bonhoeffer's own life.