48 | DECEMBER 19 • 2024
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eople of goodwill are com-
pelled to ask themselves what
they would have done in the
face of the Holocaust. A young man
on a panel told me several years ago
that he felt like Wallenberg due to his
support for Israel. But to meet the test
of Wallenberg requires a lot more than
support for Israel. My support for Israel
certainly does not put me in such a
category. Indeed, my support for Israel

scarcely makes me a righteous Gentile.
One proven righteous Gentile
was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German
Lutheran priest who established what
he called the confessing church in
defiance of the Nazi regime. His story
comes to life in the current movie
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin.
Starring Jonas Dassler in the title role,
it was written and directed by Todd
Komarnicki, and the movie has unde-

niable impact.
It is somewhat difficult to follow,
as it contains flashbacks to the priest’s
childhood in Bavaria and his young
adulthood while he is held in a con-
centration camp. Bonhoeffer early in
the movie is portrayed as naive. While
attending seminary in New York in
the early 1930s, a friend exposes him
to Harlem’s jazz scene and church
community. When the two travel to

Washington, Bonhoeffer witnesses a
racist incident and tells his friend noth-
ing of the sort would ever happen in
Germany.
Little did the young theologian
know what was in store. Upon his
return to Germany in 1933, his family
laments Hitler becoming chancellor
and anticipates the coming horror. Yet
Bonhoeffer tries to assure his family
that they are overreacting. Of course,
the Nazi agenda becomes clear to him
in a short time.
A man of deep faith, Bonhoeffer
is horrified that the German church
has been Nazified with all references
to the Jewish roots of Christianity
forbidden. Not only are statues of the
saints smashed, but Nazi authorities
even issue a new Bible declaring Christ
an Aryan. Outraged by praise for
Hitler coming from his church’s pulpit,
Bonhoeffer makes public his emphasis
that Germany has been seduced by a
criminal regime.
We see in the movie Bonhoeffer
making his declaration that silence in
the face of evil is itself evil. The movie
also exposes silence outside Germany.
He is unable to rally strong opposition
to the Nazis among English clergy and,
in America, encounters indifference
from the African American church he
had attended a few years earlier while a
seminarian.
At this point in the movie, while
Bonhoeffer is making his return visit to
America, he notifies friends and family
of his intention to return to Germany
to counter the Nazis. How easy it
might have been to wait in America for
the war to end. But Bonhoeffer is not
only determined to return to Germany,
he also participates in a plot to kill
Hitler. This is a major turning point
given that Bonhoeffer was, until then,
an avowed pacifist.
It’s not clear from the movie whether
the Nazis had ever linked Bonhoeffer
to an assassination plot. But he is
seized by the Nazis and charged for
conspiring against Hitler. And we
know enough about Bonhoeffer, who
was executed toward the end of the
war, that he was involved in anti-Hitler
activities.
Movies are usually enjoyed. But this
movie is not intended for enjoyment.
Bonhoeffer instills a sense of grave dis-
comfort. And it should.

ARTS&LIFE
FILM REVIEW

JOHN O’NEILL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS