Pastor. Pacifist. Nazi Resister

BONHOEFFER is a feature length documentary that tells the dramatic story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the young German theologian who became part of a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.As a young pastor, Bonhoeffer helped to organise the Confessing Church, Germany�s only true organised challenge to the Nazi state. A prolific writer and acclaimed preacher, Bonhoeffer came to New York on a teaching fellowship and taught Sunday school in the famed Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. When Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1932 he brought with him a new awareness of racial prejudice and became one of the first clear voices to challenge the Christian churches to stand with the Jews in their moment of need. In the end, Bonhoeffer paid with his life for his beliefs. Three weeks before the end of World War II, the 39-year old was executed.Through Bonhoeffer�s own writings and the first hand accounts of those who lived the experience with him, we understand Nazism and the Holocaust in a new light and we see a creative model for the role of the church in a �world come of age�. Rarely seen archival film footage that captures Germany from the turn of the century through to the devastation of World War II has been culled from archives and private collections in the United States and Europe. Original photographs from the Bonhoeffer family private collection have been incorporated for the first time into a documentary.Interviewees for the program include Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer�s biographer and best friend, family members, former Bonhoeffer students and fellow resistors, as well as an array of top historians and scholars.

Documentary: 

Release Date: 04/02/09

Language: English
Running Time (min.): 92
Rating: PG
Colour: Colour
Media Format: Region 4 DVD