Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer Was Hanged 70 Years Ago - April 8, 1945

He was hanged 70 years ago, and Martin Luther King made him a hero during the civil rights movement. Pastor Bonhoeffer's message is still relevant today as we battle the Islamic State.

There were moral monsters who wanted to look the other way during the Nazi and civil rights era.
During the nightmare years of the 1930's, many people remained silent about what was happening in Germany. They said it was sad, but it was not our problem. That attitude has not disappeared. They are a minority, but the GOP has an isolationist wing. In 2012, Ron Paul won half the youth vote in all the early GOP primaries.


April 29, 2015
By Greg Hilton

Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 39, was hanged 70 years ago this month in a Nazi concentration camp. The last words recorded before his execution were "This is the end – for me the beginning of life."

He was arrested in April 1943 and executed shortly before Hitler's suicide. He believed "We are guilty of what we do wrong, as well as what we don't do right!"

Bonhoeffer's life as a theologian of great intellect—and his martyrdom in opposition to Nazism—exerted great influence. He was frequently quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the Civil Rights movement, and the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa.

In 1996, Pat Buchanan defeated Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS) in the New Hampshire primary and went on to win Alaska, Missouri and Louisiana. He finished only slightly behind Dole in the Iowa caucus.

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) believes the Holocaust was an internal German problem, and we should not have done anything about it. He also says we should do nothing if Israel is attacked and continues to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

At that time, segregation was legal in the south, and businesses were allowed to withhold services from blacks. Dr. Paul says it is a question of states rights, and the federal government should not have intervened to stop segregation or slavery.

Pat Buchanan's book "Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War" (2008) blames the war on Britain and Poland for not negotiating with the Nazis. The author believes coexistence with Nazism was preferable to war. He writes "Though derided as isolationists, the America First patriots kept the United States out of the war."

Today the House Liberty Caucus continues to advocate isolationism and they believe there can be coexistence with the Islamic State. They know about the persecution of Christians, the beheadings, Sharia Law, the 11 million refugees and displaced persons, as well as the over 250,000 who have died.

Hitler believed in a master race and the Islamic State wants a master religion. They will not negotiate and there will be no compromise. We should not have ignored the Nazis for so long, and we need a serious strategy to defeat the Islamic State.

Pastor Bonhoeffer's message was important in WW II, and it is just as vital today.

"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