BONHOEFFER, an acclaimed dramatic documentary about theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, tells the story of the young German pastor who offered one of the first clear voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler and the rise of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party. Bonhoeffer openly challenged his church to stand with the Jews in their time of need. Eventually, he joined a plot to kill Hitler. BONHOEFFER, airing on PBS Monday, February 6, 2006 (check local listings), in conjunction with the 100th anniversary celebration of Bonhoeffer's birth (February 4, 1906), mixes archival footage, some of it never before seen in the United States, with the words of Bonhoeffer himself, read by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (Out of Africa), and interviews with friends, family and students of Bonhoeffer; Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa; Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer's biographer and best friend; and historians and theologians. The New York Times called Martin Doblmeier's film "a touching narrative on the nature of faith"; the Los Angeles Times deemed it "a heroic odyssey illuminated with admirable clarity." Doblmeier notes, "I am pleased that the film is going to find a national television audience. It's my hope that the witness Bonhoeffer gave in his time and place will serve as an example to people here, today, to identify where justice is called for and to move toward bringing it about." Dietrich Bonhoeffer was among the first to oppose Adolf Hitler. As a young pastor, he helped organize the Confessing Church, Germany's only true organized challenge to the Nazi state. A prolific writer and acclaimed preacher, Bonhoeffer went to New York on a teaching fellowship and taught Sunday school in the famed Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. When he returned to Germany in 1932, he took with him a new awareness of racial prejudice and became one of the first to challenge the Christian churches to defend the Jews in their moment of peril. In the end, Bonhoeffer paid with his life for his beliefs. Three weeks before the end of World War II, the 39-year-old minister was executed. Through the Bonhoeffer story, viewers observe the Church of Germany in the 1930s, so anxious to ride the Nazi wave of popularity that it ordained Hitler the "savior" of the German people. Against Bonhoeffer's strong protest, the church clung to a false sense of patriotic nationalism when confronted with the reality of brutal oppression of the Jews, and in so doing "paved the way for the Holocaust." Through Bonhoeffer's own writings and the firsthand accounts of those who lived through the experience with him, BONHOEFFER presents Nazism and the Holocaust in a new light, letting viewers 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 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's private collection have been incorporated for the first time into a documentary. BONHOEFFER opened in theatrical release as an independent documentary film in June 2003, playing in major cities across the country. In addition to the several awards, including the Gabriel Award and the Wilbur Award, both for best documentary of the year, it has drawn attention because of the growing interest in its main character. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote several major books about theology and ethics, including Life Together, The Cost of Discipleship, Letters and Papers from Prison and Ethics, which have exerted a significant influence on contemporary Christian theology.
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