Today, 75 years ago the church man Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the officers Hans Oster, Wilhelm Canaris, Ludwig Gehre, Karl Sack und Theodor Strueck were executed in Flossenbuerg. Same as GeorgElser in Dachau and Hans von Dohnanyi in Sachsenhausen. Bonhoeffer is reported having communicated to a British prisoner the words: “ This is the end – for me the beginning of my life.” RIP to all of you. Does anyone know, who this Brit was? Stefan.
Captain Sigismund Payne Best was an SIS (MI6) officer lured to a meeting at Venlo in Neutral Netherlands in September 1939 and kidnapped by German intelligence operatives. A case was later concocted that he had been involved with George Elser's failed assassination attempt on Hitler
That's strange both Payne Best and Stevens were incarcerated in Sachsenhausen throughout the war and never had the opportunity to meet Bonhoeffer who was arrested in April 1943 and taken to Berlin Tegel prison where he was imprisoned for nearly two years.In February 1945 he was moved to Buchenwald and then to Flossenburg where he was executed as related by Stefan. Bonhoeffer was a member of the Freiburg Circle which comprised of the Freiburg Council,the Bonhoeffer Circle and the Erwin von Beckerath Task Force.These opposition groups were not connected but had personal connections with the economists,Constantin von Dietze,Walter Eucken and Adolf Lampe. Collectively were referred to as the Freiburg Circle or Freiburgers Hans von Dohnanyi was Bonhoeffer's brother in law.In 1940,Bonhoeffer was called up by the Wehrmacht to serve in the Counterintelligence service.He is recorded as being able to travel to Geneva and the Vatican where he gave accounts of the deportation of German Jews.
Not only is it covered in Paynes own book it is confirmed in Bonhoeffer's Biography by Eberhard Bethge as coming from Payne and also by Bishop Bell for whom the message was intended and to whom Payne wrote on his release
See also The Existential Philosophy of Etty Hillesum Meins G.S. Coetsier offers an account of Etty Hillesum's spiritual and cultural life in light of the writings of Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Page 200 which describes Bonhoeffer's last moments. According to the camp doctor other than uttering a number of short prayers Bonhoeffer spoke to no one one when going to and on the gallows. So his last recorded words were spoken to Best before being taken away for execution. See George R. Sinclair Walking in Wonder: Resilience in Ministry page 60
Payne Best and Stevens ex Sachsenhausen met Bonhoeffer at Buchenwald in February 1945 where the group was being formed as Himmler's Prominente, a bargaining group which Himmler envisaged he could do a deal with the Allies.From there the group passage was thought to be the Alpine Redoubt but they ended up at Flossenburg. The account you give is correct .The travels of the Prominente are also told by Wings Day but as I recollect, not the final days of Bonhoeffer.
Stefan As I see it no SOE operative survived the final days at Flossenburg. Payne Best records the events that took place one day before he was executed.
A number of prisoners, Best included, asked Bonhoeffer to conduct a service. When it was ended two men arrived to take him away. He was taken to a summary hearing, sentenced, held alone in a cell overnight and hanged in the morning. The close of the service was the last time he was in a position to speak to another prisoner. He was asking Payne Best to take his words to Bishop Christopher Bell who was an old friend and mentor.
In Our Time - Dietrich Bonhoeffer - BBC Sounds Dietrich Bonhoeffer Released On: 27 Sep 2018 Available for over a year Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of the German theologian, born in Breslau/Wroclaw in 1906 and killed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on 9th April 1945. Bonhoeffer developed ideas about the role of the Church in the secular world, in particular Germany after the Nazis took power in 1933 and demanded the Churches' support. He strongly opposed anti-Semitism and, with a role in the Military Intelligence Department, took part in the resistance, plotting to kill Hitler and meeting with contacts in the Allies. Bonhoeffer's ideas on Christian ethics and the relationship between Christianity and humanism spread more widely from the 1960s with the discovery of unpublished works, including those written in prison as he awaited execution. With Stephen Plant Dean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge Eleanor McLaughlin Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at the University of Winchester and Lecturer in Ethics at Regent’s Park College at the University of Oxford And Tom Greggs Marischal Chair of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen Producer: Simon Tillotson