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Flossenbürg
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Flossenbürg

Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Germany

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a gifted young theologian who saw from the start that the church could not stay silent about Hitler. He led an underground seminary, wrote about the cost of following Jesus and joined the resistance. Arrested in 1943, he was moved to Flossenbürg camp at the end of the war and hanged at dawn on 9 April 1945; his last message was: 'This is the end, for me the beginning of life.' Today the camp is a memorial, with a plaque for Bonhoeffer and the other resistance fighters killed here.

Did you know?

The camp was liberated two weeks later. His statue now stands above the west door of Westminster Abbey.

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An inspiring story

The beginning of life

How do you face the end?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who resisted Hitler, and paid for it with two years in prison. On Sunday 8 April 1945 he led a short service for his fellow prisoners in a village school. Just as he finished, two men came in: 'Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us.' He asked a British fellow prisoner to pass on a message to a friend: 'This is the end, for me the beginning of life.' Why so calm? Because he believed death did not have the last word. The next morning he was hanged at Flossenbürg, two weeks before American troops liberated the camp.

He had written that following Jesus can cost everything. He lived it to the very last day.

This is the end, for me the beginning of life.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 8 April 1945

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