After Maria’s visit, Dietrich was allowed more visitors and for longer periods. He never knew when he would get a visitor or how long he would be able to talk, but it felt wonderful to have contact with the outside world.
Within the prison, Dietrich befriended three guards in particular. All three hated the Third Reich and promised to do anything they could to help Dietrich. They supplied him with fresh writing paper and pens and smuggled letters in and out of the prison for him. This brightened Dietrich’s life considerably, and he started writing a theology book that was smuggled out chapter by chapter to Eberhard Bethge. One of the guards also smuggled out a wedding sermon for Eberhard and Renate’s wedding. Dietrich felt wistful the day of their wedding; he’d been asked to be Eberhard’s best man.
The friendly guards continued to watch over Dietrich, allowing him to visit the infirmary to pray with the patients. Dietrich always focused on their practical as well as their spiritual needs. He also used his own money to hire lawyers for several of the prisoners who had suffered from shell shock while fighting on the front lines and had walked away from their posts, making them deserters. This was a crime punishable by death, but Dietrich hoped that with good representation the men could prove they were unaware of their actions at the time.
Dietrich loved his work in the infirmary, and it came with an added bonus—he was able to listen to the radio while there. What bliss it was to listen to broadcasts of concerts. The sound of beautiful music lifted his spirits. Sometimes, when only Dietrich’s friendly guards were around, the guards even turned the radio dial to listen to news from the BBC in London.
In July 1943, Dietrich was finally charged with “subversion of the armed forces.” A date was set for his trial, but the trial was postponed and another date set. This happened over and over until Dietrich wondered whether there would ever be a trial. In the meantime, Dietrich heard snippets of news about what was happening on the outside. That month the Allies had bombed Rome and Hamburg. Dietrich later learned that the Italians had surrendered to the Allies in early September, though German troops still occupied Rome and northern Italy.
On the night of November 26, Dietrich went from hearing about Allied air raids to experiencing one. Four days before, the Allies had launched a series of air bombings over Berlin. But on the night of the twenty-sixth, the Borsig locomotive factory, right next to Tegel Prison, was a target of the Allied bombing. The prison shook as exploding bombs crashed nearby.
The next morning Dietrich learned from a guard that the bombing had been severe. As a result, fires were burning all over the city, and around 2,000 Berliners had been killed and another 175,000 left homeless. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, where Dietrich had preached on several occasions, was badly damaged, along with the zoo and Charlottenburg Palace. Dietrich waited anxiously for a letter from his parents. Thankfully everyone in the Bonhoeffer household was safe.
As Christmas 1943 approached, the official prison pastor asked Dietrich to write prayers for the prisoners to recite. Dietrich was glad to do so, and the prayers were distributed throughout Tegel. For Dietrich, it was a lonely Christmas being locked up away from his family.
When 1944 began, Dietrich wondered what the year ahead would hold. Would the war be over soon? Would he get his trial and a chance at freedom? By the end of January, he received one piece of good news: Colonel Manfred Roeder had been dismissed as the chief prosecutor for Dietrich’s case, and a new prosecutor had been assigned in his place. Dietrich hoped this would hurry along the legal process. Meanwhile, the area around Tegel Prison was now being repeatedly bombed in Allied bombing raids.
February, though, brought bad news: Admiral Canaris had been suspended, and Abwehr had been integrated into the Office for National Security. As head of Abwehr, Admiral Canaris had done all he could to watch out for Dietrich and Hans in prison. That protection no longer existed.
Eberhard visited, and Sergeant Linke, one of the three guards helpful to Dietrich, allowed the two men to visit each other without anyone monitoring their conversation. Dietrich felt relief in being able to talk freely to his best friend. Eberhard announced that he’d been drafted into the army and was being sent to serve on the Italian Front. In addition, his wife Renate, Dietrich’s niece, was pregnant. Eberhard also told Dietrich that Hans was not doing well. Hans had suffered a stroke and was partially blind and losing hope. Dietrich took off his wire-rimmed glasses and rubbed his forehead at the discouraging news.
Life continued on day after day in Tegel. Dietrich kept up his self-imposed activity schedule and read a number of books. He knew he could push for his case to be reassessed, but contacts outside the prison urged him to wait. Another assassination attempt on Hitler’s life was being planned for July 20, 1944. This attempt involved Count von Stauffenberg’s leaving a bomb in a briefcase at field headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia, while Hitler was visiting.
On July 20, Dietrich listened intently to the infirmary radio, waiting for news of Hitler’s death. The BBC interrupted its broadcast with a news flash, but it was not the news Dietrich hoped to hear. The BBC reported that an assassination attempt had been made on the führer’s life but that Hitler had escaped with only minor injuries, while a stenographer and three officers had been killed. Dietrich could hardly believe it. Once again Adolf Hitler had cheated death.
Reprisals for the failed assassination attempt were swift and thorough. Within days about two hundred men and women suspected of playing a role in the plot were rounded up, tortured, and killed. Among the suspects was Dietrich’s mother’s cousin, General Paul von Hase.
Two months later, Dietrich heard more devastating news. On September 22, the Nazis discovered Hans von Dohnanyi’s “Chronicle of Shame.” After his arrest Hans had sent instructions via his wife, Christine, to destroy the documents. The instructions weren’t followed, however, and the “Chronicle of Shame” was left in an Abwehr safe in the town of Zossen, on the outskirts of Berlin, where the Nazis discovered it. Now Hitler could read the dossier for himself. Dietrich knew that it showed that he, Admiral Canaris, General Hans Oster, Hans von Dohnanyi, and a number of others were involved in an earlier conspiracy to kill Hitler. It was now only a matter of time before these men were killed for their role in the plot.
Knowing this, by early October, Dietrich’s family had come up with a plan to get Dietrich out of jail. One of the friendly guards would bring civilian clothes into the prison for Dietrich, who would put them on and walk out of Tegel dressed as a prison gardener. Dietrich was ready to follow their plan, until he learned of the arrests of his brother Klaus, his brother-in-law Rüdiger, and his friend Eberhard on October 4. The men had all been arrested for their involvement in the wider conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazis. Dietrich immediately abandoned his escape plan for fear that retribution might fall on Maria and the rest of his family. Now all he could do was wait.
Four days later, on October 8, 1944, Dietrich was transferred from Tegel Military Prison to the Gestapo prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. This was not a good sign.
Chapter 18
Our Victory Is Certain
Within a day of arriving at the Gestapo prison in the basement of the Reich Main Security Office, Dietrich realized the prison held some advantages. His cell was smaller than the previous one. Because it had barely room for a folding bed and a stool, Dietrich had to use the communal bathroom at the end of the cellblock. This brought him into contact with other prisoners. Even though the prisoners were not supposed to talk to each other, Dietrich discovered that the noise of running water covered their whispered conversations. Because of this, everyone was eager to take a shower, even though the water was cold.
No outside exercise was allowed, but the prisoners were all hustled out of their cells during the frequent air raids and taken down a corridor to a bunker. The Gestapo still thought there was important information to extract from its prisoners and didn’t want them killed in an air raid. Everyone took advantage of the chaos of getting to the bunker to exchange greetings and information with other prisoners they knew. Dietrich was not surprised to recognize Admiral Canaris and General Oster during one air raid. Both men looked ill and gaunt.
Between air raids Dietrich continued to write, though sometimes he ran short of paper. He was able to have some visitors and receive food and book parcels, though not as frequently as at Tegel.
Dietrich entered 1945 with a sense of urgency. His only hope, and that of his brother and brothers-in-law, was for the Allies to smash the Nazis soon. Not only were the Allies now bombing Germany at will from the air, but the Soviet army was also sweeping in from the east, and British, French, and American troops were pushing in from the west. It was only a matter of time before Germany was defeated.
As Dietrich was being herded to the bomb shelter at the beginning of February, he looked into one cell and saw his brother-in-law Hans lying on a stretcher. In the mayhem of prisoners rushing toward the bunker, Dietrich slipped into Hans’s cell and talked to him briefly. Hans told him he’d been transferred to the Gestapo prison the day before. Dietrich could see that he was in terrible shape physically from sickness, torture, and neglect. Dietrich could spend only a few moments with Hans before he had to rejoin the other prisoners. Soon afterward he learned that Hans had been moved to a military hospital.
On February 3, 1945, almost a thousand US Air Force B-17 bombers attacked Berlin. For two hours Dietrich listened from the prison bomb shelter as wave after wave of airplanes flew overhead. At times the exploding bombs shook the earth so much that Dietrich thought the roof would cave in. But the bomb shelter held together. The Reich Main Security Office did not fare so well. It was almost completely destroyed by the bombing. The Gestapo prison in the basement was still intact, but it was obvious to Dietrich and the other prisoners that they couldn’t be housed there much longer.
The day after the bombing attack, Dietrich had his thirty-ninth birthday. He said special prayers for his sister Sabine and her family; he was glad they were safe in England. He also prayed for his aging parents, knowing they would spend the day thinking about him and Sabine. He hoped that perhaps next year he and his twin sister could spend their birthday together again. Dietrich was sure his parents and Maria would try to get a birthday parcel to him, and he was concerned about the dangers they would face walking about the bombed-out city. Dietrich was right. On the morning of February 7, he received a birthday parcel.
Around noon that day, a commotion started outside Dietrich’s cell. Soon the cell door swung open, and Dietrich was ordered to gather up his things and stand outside his cell in the corridor. Dietrich was then marched outside the prison and told to wait with twenty other men. It was the first time he had seen daylight in the four months since arriving at the Gestapo prison. Dietrich recognized some of the men he was waiting with: General von Falkenhausen, who had been the governor of Belgium when Germany occupied the country during World War I; Kurt von Schuschnigg, the former chancellor of Austria; Hjalmar Schacht, the former head of the Reichsbank; Admiral Canaris, General Hans Oster, Judge Karl Sack, and Joseph Müller, who had worked out of the Munich office of Abwehr; and various other military officers.
Finally two battered vans pulled up to transport the prisoners. For some reason Dietrich and Joseph Müller were handcuffed before being ordered into one of the vans. The engine revved and the vans were off. As they drove through the streets of Berlin, Dietrich was shocked by what he saw. The bombs had leveled buildings, and in some cases, whole blocks. The roads were pockmarked, and there didn’t seem to be any direction you could turn and not see damage. A haze of smoke from the smoldering hulks of bombed and burned-out buildings hung in the air.
