Bonhoeffer was part of a "Christian resistance" to defend the Jews. He was the featured speaker at an int'l conference discussing how churches should handle post-WWI recovery at the age fo 22. He also got his doctorate at Union Theological Seminary in NY and RETURNED to WWII Germany (knowing the risks) to start a seminary and be an underground advocate for the Jews. He wrote this poem when he was in prison, in 1944:
"Who am I?"
"Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my prison cell
poisted, cheerful and sturdy,
like a nobleman from his country estate.
Who am I? They often tell me I would speak with my guards
freely, pleasantly and firmly,
as if I had it to command.
Who am I? I have also been told that I suffer days of misfortune
with serenity, smiles and pride,
as someone accustomed to victory.
"Am I really what others say about me?
Or am I only what I know of myself?
Restless, yearning and sick, like a bird in its cage,
struggling for the breath of life,
as though someone were choking my throat;
hungering for colors, for flowers, for the songs of birds,
thirsting for kind words and human closeness,
shaking with anger at capricious tyranny and the pettiest slurs,
bedeviled by anxiety, awaiting great events that might never occur,
fearfully powerless and worried for friends far away,
weary and empty in prayer, in thinking, in doing,
weak, and ready to take leave of it all.
"Who am I? This man or that other?
Am I then this man today and tomorrow another?
Am I both all at once? An imposter to others,
but to me little more than a whining, despicable weakling?
Does what is in me compare to a vanquished army,
that flees in dsorder before a battle already won?
"Who am I? They mock me these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, you know me, O God. You know I am yours."
Reply
