Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Lutheran pastor and theologian; opposed Nazi co-option of the German church from the beginning; returned to Germany from safety in America at the war's start because his place was with his people in their suffering; joined the resistance, then the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler; hanged at Flossenbürg two weeks before the camp was liberated. Failure mode: None in the witness; the wrestled ethics of the assassination plot recorded honestly in the letters. Restoration path: Return from safety to the people in their judgment; speak from inside the corruption rather than from outside it. Markers: sees the corruption early; returns from foreign safety; public theological resistance; joins the active plot; executed at the war's end edge — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German, 1906-1945 (History)