Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Resister and Rescuer

 

I am Hunter Cooper, and I wrote a letter to the editor to a local newspaper about this resister and rescuer from the Holocaust.  I chose to spread his story this way because many people read the newspaper, and I thought that it would be the best way to let others know how to step up and face evils today like he did all those years ago.

 

This is my letter to the editor:

 

Over the past few weeks my English Honors class has been researching resistance in the Holocaust. Thousands of stories of how people resisted exist, but this one interested me because of how it relates to the riots and controversy happening in our cities over the past six months.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an ordinary German Lutheran pastor in 1933 when the Nazis rose to power. Bonhoeffer’s church chose to comply with the Nazis; however, Bonhoeffer did not.  Dietrich felt obligated as a faithful Christian to fight for Jews who were under persecution and injustice.   Not only did Bonhoeffer assist in the escape of fourteen Jews, but he also was a conspirator against Hitler.  Being a German citizen and not Jewish, the question is why would he go against his ruler?  Because he knew it was the right thing to do, to help the innocent.  

 

So where am I going with this?  Do not be a bystander. Watching the crime and not acting on it is not far from committing the crime yourself.  Bonhoeffer says, “The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live.”  

 

Do we want our future generations to live in fear of constant war, riots, and chaos?  Stand up for what is right.  Make the world a better place.  You may not save the world, but you can save someone’s world...Do not be a bystander.

 

Hunter Cooper

 

Source:  ushmm.org