The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero
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About this ebook
Perfect for fans of suspenseful nonfiction such as books by Steve Sheinkin, this is a page-turning narrative about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and pacifist who became an unlikely hero during World War II and took part in a plot to kill Hitler. Written by two-time National Book Award finalist Patricia McCormick, author of Sold and Never Fall Down and coauthor of the young reader’s edition of I Am Malala.
It was April 5, 1943, and the Gestapo would arrive any minute. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been expecting this day for a long time. He had put his papers in order—and left a few notes specifically for Hitler’s men to see. Two SS agents climbed the stairs and told the boyish-looking Bonhoeffer to come with them. He calmly said good-bye to his parents, put his Bible under his arm, and left. Upstairs there was proof, in his own handwriting, that this quiet young minister was part of a conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler.
This compelling, brilliantly researched account includes the remarkable discovery that Bonhoeffer was one of the first people to provide evidence to the Allies that Jews were being deported to death camps. It takes readers from his privileged early childhood to the studies and travel that would introduce him to peace activists around the world—eventually putting this gentle, scholarly pacifist on a deadly course to assassinate one of the most ruthless dictators in history. The Plot to Kill Hitler provides fascinating insights into what makes someone stand up for what’s right when no one else is standing with you. It is a question that every generation must answer again and again.
With black-and-white photographs, fascinating sidebars, and thoroughly researched details, this book should be essential reading.
Patricia McCormick
Patricia McCormick is a former journalist and a two-time National Book Award finalist whose books include Cut, Sold, Never Fall Down, The Plot to Kill Hitler, the young readers edition of I Am Malala, and the award-winning picture book Sergeant Reckless: The True Story of the Little Horse Who Became a Hero. Patricia lives in New York. Visit her online at pattymccormick.com.
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Reviews for The Plot to Kill Hitler
14 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This may be a book for young adults, but I’d give it to any adult interested in the US political system as it is playing out after the 2016 election. How interesting that the assassination plot involved a clergyman who refused to let his national leader override his religious and moral views.
Book preview
The Plot to Kill Hitler - Patricia McCormick
DEDICATION
To my nephews, Jack, Wisler, Champ, and Mychal
EPIGRAPH
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Epigraph
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One: A Big, Rambunctious Family
Chapter Two: War Breaks Out
Chapter Three: Bonhoeffer Seals His Destiny
Chapter Four: Leaving Home for the First Time
Chapter Five: The Trip That Changed Everything
Chapter Six: The Men Who Would Change Bonhoeffer’s Fate
Chapter Seven: A New Idea of What a Church Could Be
Chapter Eight: From Faith to Action
Chapter Nine: Grappling with the Existence of God
Chapter Ten: A Decisive Experience: Visiting the United States
Chapter Eleven: Heil, Hitler!
Chapter Twelve: Speaking Out against the Führer
Chapter Thirteen: The Aryan Paragraph
Chapter Fourteen: Committing Treason
Chapter Fifteen: Bonfire of Hatred
Chapter Sixteen: A Nazi Church
Chapter Seventeen: A Different Kind of Resistance
Chapter Eighteen: Night of the Long Knives
Chapter Nineteen: A Breakaway Church
Chapter Twenty: A Conspiracy Begins
Chapter Twenty-One: The War Hits Home
Chapter Twenty-Two: A Dark Night of the Soul
Chapter Twenty-Three: From Clergyman to Courier
Chapter Twenty-Four: Undercover
Chapter Twenty-Five: Sounding the Alarm
Chapter Twenty-Six: Love in Wartime
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Noose Grows Tighter
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Assassination Attempts
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Caught
Chapter Thirty: Another Attempt on Hitler’s Life
Chapter Thirty-One: Evidence of Treason
Chapter Thirty-Two: The End of the War
Chapter Thirty-Three: Eternity at Last
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Timeline
Endnotes
Selected Bibliography
About the Author
Books by Patricia McCormick
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE FAMILY
DR. KARL BONHOEFFER
Dietrich’s father was one of the most prominent psychiatrists in Germany.
PAULA BONHOEFFER
Dietrich’s mother was trained as a teacher and was one of the few women of her generation to earn a college degree. The Bonhoeffers lost two sons and two sons-in-law because of their involvement in the plot against Hitler.
KARL-FRIEDRICH BONHOEFFER
Seven years older than his brother Dietrich, he was a brilliant physicist and would go on to help Albert Einstein split the atom.
WALTER BONHOEFFER
Six years older than his brother Dietrich, he was an aspiring botanist. He died of injuries in World War I.
KLAUS BONHOEFFER
Five years older than his brother Dietrich, he was one of the original members of the conspiracy. As an attorney for a German airline, he used his ability to travel to build support for the coup. He was killed by a firing squad just days before the fall of Berlin.
URSULA BONHOEFFER
Four years older than her brother Dietrich, she married Rüdiger Schleicher, an attorney who was one of the original members of the conspiracy. He was killed by a firing squad just days before the fall of Berlin.
CHRISTEL BONHOEFFER
Three years older than her brother Dietrich, she married Hans von Dohnanyi, the architect of the conspiracy. Dohnanyi compiled proof of Nazi atrocities, a file he called the Chronicle of Shame. Christel was arrested along with her husband but released; she brought coded messages to him in prison so the conspiracy could continue. Dohnanyi was hanged at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
SABINE BONHOEFFER
Dietrich’s twin, she married Gerhard Leibholz, a baptized Christian who came from a Jewish family. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi helped them flee to Switzerland before they could be sent to a concentration camp.
SUZANNE BONHOEFFER
Three years younger than her brother Dietrich, she married the philosopher Walter Dress, a friend of her brother’s.
MARIA VON WEDEMEYER
Dietrich’s fiancée. After the war, she came to the United States and studied mathematics at Bryn Mawr College.
THE CONSPIRACY
ADMIRAL WILHELM CANARIS
Chief of the German intelligence agency, he originally went to Hitler to tell him about atrocities in Poland, only to find out Hitler had ordered the killings himself. Canaris then became a key member of the conspiracy and was executed at Flossenbürg alongside Bonhoeffer.
GENERAL HANS OSTER
Deputy head of German intelligence, he was Dohnanyi’s superior and allowed him to hire Bonhoeffer and to collect information about war crimes. When those files were discovered, Oster was hanged at Flossenbürg alongside Bonhoeffer.
LIEUTENANT FABIAN VON SCHLABRENDORFF
A member of the conspiracy, he placed a bomb disguised as a bottle of cognac on Hitler’s plane. He was arrested and tortured but never revealed the names of the other conspirators. He was moved from one concentration camp to another, including Flossenbürg, where he saw Bonhoeffer’s body carried to an open fire. He avoided being executed at Flossenbürg because of a clerical error and lived until 1980.
MAJOR RUDOLPH-CHRISTOPH VON GERSDORFF
A member of the conspiracy, he activated a pair of bombs inside his coat while giving Hitler a tour of his headquarters; Hitler left unexpectedly and Gersdorff disabled the bombs. Because none of the conspirators ever revealed his name, even under torture, he was never caught by the Gestapo and lived until 1980.
CLAUS SCHENK GRAF VON STAUFFENBERG
A member of the conspiracy, he placed a bomb under the map table at Hitler’s headquarters. The bomb successfully went off, killing four people; Hitler escaped relatively unharmed. Stauffenberg was killed by firing squad that night.
WERNER VON HAEFTEN
The young soldier who asked Bonhoeffer if he should shoot Hitler, he drove the getaway car for Stauffenberg and was killed by firing squad.
BISHOP GEORGE BELL
A member of the British parliament, he served as Bonhoeffer’s secret contact in the British government. He was outspoken in his opposition to Hitler and delivered Bonhoeffer’s eulogy on a radio broadcast three months after his death. Many years later, Bell was accused of child abuse.
PROLOGUE
APRIL 5, 1943
The Gestapo would arrive any minute. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, waiting peacefully in his book-lined study, had been expecting this day for a long time. He arranged his files carefully on his desk and opened his diary to a page with fake entries to throw Hitler’s men off his trail. Then he removed a panel from the ceiling and hid a letter alongside a sheaf of papers he’d stashed there earlier.
The purr of a diesel engine announced the arrival of a black Mercedes on the leafy Berlin street outside his house. Two of Hitler’s secret police agents got out and climbed the stairs to the third-floor study. They told the blond, boyish-looking Bonhoeffer to come with them. He calmly said good-bye to his parents, put his Bible under his arm, and left.
Upstairs under the rafters was proof, in his own handwriting, that this quiet young minister was part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s desk and piano
ONE
A BIG, RAMBUNCTIOUS FAMILY
1906–14
Most of the homes in Breslau, Germany, had tidy front yards, neatly tended gardens, and thick Persian rugs in the parlor. But at the Bonhoeffer home, chickens strutted across the tennis court. Lizards, snakes, and rabbits were kept in a small zoo near the kitchen. And the family’s pet nanny goat wandered freely in and out of the parlor.
The children—four boys and four girls—went to school at home, in a makeshift classroom with desks, chalkboards, and a trunk full of wigs, hats, and costumes. The family had a governess, a nursemaid, a cook, a housemaid, and a chauffeur, but their mother, Paula Bonhoeffer, was their teacher. She was strict when it came to table manners, but otherwise she loved to say yes to her children’s ideas. So when her oldest sons—Karl-Friedrich, fourteen; Walter, thirteen; and Klaus, twelve—asked to dig up the front yard to create an underground passageway, she agreed.
Paula Bonhoeffer with her eight children. Dietrich is in the first row, second from left, and Klaus is in the second row, far right. Photographed in Breslau by Rotraut Forberg, 1911 or 1912.
The boys tunneled all the way to the edge of the property,