The Plot to Kill Hitler by Patricia McCormick

Author:Patricia McCormick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-07-04T04:00:00+00:00

Later that summer, the German president, Paul von Hindenburg, a revered war hero, passed away. It was an emotional and patriotic moment when Hitler summoned his troops to a garrison in Berlin in the middle of the night. By flickering torchlight, he asked the grieving soldiers to renew their oath of allegiance. But when they raised their hands, they found themselves swearing an oath of unconditional obedience not to their country but to Adolf Hitler himself.

NINETEEN

A BREAKAWAY CHURCH

1934–37

A ramshackle house surrounded by small buildings with thatched roofs stood nearly hidden in the dunes of the German seacoast. A mile from town, it couldn’t be seen from any of the neighboring farms. It was the perfect place for Bonhoeffer to work, far from the prying eyes of the Nazis, on the founding declaration for a new church. One that would “speak out for those who cannot speak.”1

He had come to the seaside town of Zingst with meager funds from the Pastors’ Emergency League and a handful of idealistic young theology students to create a seminary for the new Confessing Church. Together they painted the walls, scrubbed the floors, and repaired the roof. Bonhoeffer threw himself into the work, even though he had agonized about his new mission. He had given up the chance to study with Gandhi. He had given up the safety of London. But he would not give up on the church—or at least on creating a new wing that would speak so loudly against Hitler that the rest of the world would have to listen.

THE 1936 OLYMPIC GAMES

When Germany was selected to host the Olympics in 1936, Hitler initially tried to prohibit Jews and blacks from participating. He saw the games as a chance to showcase a “new Germany” and the Aryan master race. But US track-and-field star Jesse Owens, an African American athlete, was the star of the games, winning four gold medals; the German track team won only one. Bonhoeffer attended the games but was not in the stands on the day of Owens’s victory.

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