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<\/a>20th century martyrs, Westminster Abbey, left to right: Mother Elizabeth of Russia, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Archbishop Oscar Romero, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer [Author: T. Taylor, GNU Creative Commons Share Alike 2.5 Generic]<\/p><\/div>This week in the war, on 8 April (some say 9 April) 1945, Hans von Dohnanyi was hanged\u00a0at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.<\/p>\n
On the following day, 9 April 1945, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Major General Hans Oster, and Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer were hanged at Flossenb\u00fcrg concentration camp.<\/p>\n
Hans von Dohnanyi, the son of a Hungarian composer and his pianist wife, had opposed the Nazis since the 1930s. During World War II, he served in the Abwehr<\/em>, the German military intelligence service,\u00a0and was involved in the unsuccessful plot to smuggle a bomb onto Hitler’s plane,\u00a0which was returning from Smolensk.<\/p>\n Admiral Wilhelm Canaris headed the Abwehr<\/em>, hated the Nazis,\u00a0and secretly aided the Allied course throughout the war. He is thought to have provided behind-the-scenes support for the July bomb plot<\/a> against Hitler.<\/p>\n Hans Oster belonged to the Abwehr<\/em>\u00a0and had conspired against Hitler even prior to the beginning of the war.<\/p>\n Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor and theologian and was fiercely anti-Nazi. His writings were banned by the Nazis and he was eventually forbidden to speak. He was recruited into the Abwehr<\/em> (by von Dohnanyi) and, as a member of the German resistance movement, he was party to various plots against the regime.<\/p>\n \u201cNo man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. The truth is in all places.\u201d — Dietrich Bonhoeffer<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week in the war, on 8 April (some say 9 April) 1945, Hans von Dohnanyi was hanged\u00a0at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On the following day, 9 April 1945, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Major General Hans Oster, and Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer … Continue reading