The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero by Patricia McCormick

The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero Reviews

• 
  Cheryl

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born into a wealthy and influential family in Berlin, Germany. As a young child he often thought about the accomplishments his parents and siblings had achieved. He wanted to live a life that mattered and to make a difference in the world. He chose to become a Lutheran minister.
  
  When Hitler and the Nazi party rose to power, Bonhoeffer could not condone the actions he saw taking place. As more and more unjust laws which blatantly targeted Jews were passed, Bonhoeffer began to speak out. On one occasion, Bonhoeffer spoke on the radio. He began by saying that anyone who called himself a Fuhrer, or supreme leader, is ultimately a “mis-leader” and that anyone giving allegiance to a fuhrer “will in the end be destroyed by him”. When reminded that his actions could be seen as treasonous, Bonhoeffer wrote that “silence in the face of evil is itself evil, not to speak is to speak”. His writings were a call to action, and his book entitled The Cost of Discipleship has been regarded by many as one of the most important religious texts ever written.
  
  He began to be followed and harassed by the Gestapo but continued to speak out anyway. Through a series of events, Bonhoeffer became a member of a conspiratorial group whose goal was to eliminate Hitler. Despite the knowledge that his life was in danger, Bonhoeffer travelled throughout Europe with documentation, and pleaded with leaders of the clergy to speak out against the atrocities that were occurring in Germany. His pleas were met with silence.
  
  Author Patricia McCormick’s book is written for young adults. Each chapter contains photos and insets giving background information to enhance the reader’s understanding of this time in history. She has succeeded in bringing the deeds of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his fellow conspirators to light. Adults would also find this book a worthy addition to the accounts of bravery shown by ordinary citizens during the years leading up to and including World War II.
  
• 
  Preston M.

  This is arguably one of my favorite books to date. It gives me a clear view on what Hitler did and what happened to the people. This book is powerful and I got emotional when Hitler killed so many. Overall it deserves a 5 star rating. Anyone who likes history and war books would love this book. I am glad I bought it at the book fair!
• 
  Michelle Stimpson

  My students and I were fascinated by the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a true hero and remains someone for us to look up to today.
• 
  Beth Hughes

  I happened to glance at this book because my son had just finished it for his middle school history class. He hates reading and finished this book in a few days! I also figured that if I read this, we'd have something to talk about other than Fortnite V-bucks, kills, and skins. #thestruggleisreal
  
  I was already familiar with the author, as I had read--and enjoyed--some of her other books, including
  Cut,
  Never Fall Down,
  Sold, and a book about Malala Yousafzai.
  
  McCormick's writing style is easy (making her a popular author among middle schoolers), her content is typically heavy and information-packed, but her approach is always tasteful and accessible. I didn't know much about Dietrich Bonhoeffer--other than the fact that he was a German-born pastor who had authored several seminal books. However, I had vaguely heard about his resistance during the Nazi regime and may have even been in the room when a movie that included him was playing. (I tend to multitask when my husband throws on a military movie.)
  
  In any event, because this book is only 160 pages, it's a quick read that could even be enjoyed in one sitting (if you don't have kids to parent or correcting to do). I'm not a history buff, nor am I a military enthusiast (although I did marry one). However, McCormick crafts this nonfiction book to read like a novel, which made it very accessible for me. I wanted to know how Bonhoeffer was connected to the multiple assassination attempts on Hitler--and how close Bonhoeffer got to the him before the Fuhrer took his own life. Additionally, this was a good WWII refresher for me, as I had forgotten many of the details surrounding the war. Thankfully, McCormick's timeline throughout the book--and the complete one at the end--served as a good crash course in information that had left me years ago.
  
  The final verdict? Patricia McCormick does it again, creating an interesting, well-researched read that adolescents--and their parents!--will enjoy.
• 
  Sesana

  The life of an amazing man, retold by a talented author.
• 
  Hayley Wisman

  This is the first book that I’ve read since starting to enjoy reading and it was great! I’ve always enjoyed reading about world war 2 or the holocaust and this book was very interesting. It was interesting hearing about the faith aspect of people living during the war especially Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Definitely recommend especially if you are interesting in WW2/Holocaust!
• 
  Ben Denison

  Very short book on Bonhoeffer, but I did learn a few new things I didn’t get of it if Metaxes excellent biography.
  
  This was a quick one, and not really much on “the plot” as much as Bonhoeffer’s life and non-violent fight against the Nazi’s.
• 
  Richie Partington

  Richie’s Picks: THE PLOT TO KILL HITLER: DIETRICH BONHOEFFER: PASTOR, SPY, UNLIKELY HERO by Patricia McCormick, Balzer & Bray, September 2016, 192p., ISBN: 978-0-06-241108-2
  
  “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.”
  -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  
  “...Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.”
  -- Martin Niemoller
  
  In THE PLOT TO KILL HITLER, young readers are provided an introduction to the rise of madman Adolf Hitler. Patricia McCormick’s well-researched and documented history of little-known hero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, also repeatedly shows the failure by clergymen, both inside and outside of Germany, to oppose or speak out against Hitler’s actions.
  
  “Dietrich had seen the effects of ‘separate but equal’ in the United States, and even though he was just a junior lecturer at Berlin University, he knew he had to speak out. The rest of the country might have fallen under Hitler’s spell, but Bonhoeffer thought that the clergy, men who had taken solemn vows to love and care for their fellow man, would take a stand against such blatant injustice. This, after all, was why he had become a minister, as he’d told his brothers back when he was thirteen--not to retreat from the issues of the day but to affect them.
  “As church leaders gathered to debate the Aryan Paragraph, Bonhoeffer asked for an opportunity to speak. He was only twenty-seven, but he was already known for his opposition to Hitler. As he stood, the purple-robed clerics fidgeted in their seats.
  “Bonhoeffer said that his fellow clergymen had a responsibility to question the government when it was in the wrong. This was a bold statement when Hitler’s men were routinely arresting and torturing anyone who spoke against the Fuhrer. Then Bonhoeffer went further.
  “The church, he said, has an obligation to ‘assist the victims’ of government wrongdoing--’even if they do not belong to the Christian community.’ He didn’t say so, but everyone knew he was talking about the Jews. At that, some of the ministers in the meeting got up and walked out.
  “But Bonhoeffer had more to say. It was not enough to simply ‘bandage the victims under the wheel’ of the government, he said. The church had a duty to jam a stick in the wheel itself. He was calling on his fellow pastors to stop Hitler in his tracks.
  “Millions of lives might have been saved if Germany’s Christian leaders had listened to the young preacher. But no one heeded his words.”
  
  As the author reveals, young Bonhoeffer’s moral pleas fell on deaf ears. In contrast, Adolf Hitler successfully appealed to the German clergy by taking advantage of their desire for more power. After Hitler announced that his government would make Christianity “the basis of our collective morality,” the clergymen installed Hitler’s choice as the church’s leader, and then they all started hanging swastikas behind their altars.
  
  One minister declared “Christ has come to us through Adolf Hitler.” This was, of course, before Hitler decided that there should be a national church, one devoid of crosses, crucifixes, and images of saints. There should only be swastikas.
  
  In response to Hitler’s unspeakable actions against Jews, gays, and other people, Bonhoeffer became a double agent. He developed the means to move in and out of Germany, desperately seeking to share the truth of what was taking place under Hitler. Thanks to his ability to spirit information out of the country, he was the first to attempt to alert the outside world to Hitler’s plan for ridding Germany (and all conquered countries) of non-Aryans.
  
  Meanwhile, Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law developed a plot to murder the Fuehrer and began recruiting participants. But how could Bonhoeffer, a pacifist preacher, reconcile being part of such an effort? This is one of many great questions the author probes.
  
  Bonhoeffer’s plotting was eventually discovered and he was taken to a prison camp and hanged, just weeks before Hitler took his own life in the face of defeat.
  
  Interestingly, we learn in the author’s note that Bonhoeffer’s papers, which he’d hidden in his parents’ attic, were found, translated into English, and subsequently “passed around jail cells in the South during the civil rights movement” and “quoted by student demonstrators in the United States in the 1960s.”
  
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer failed in his attempts to prevent or stop the Holocaust, but I think of him as a hero. I’m glad to have learned about him and hope that lots of young people will also have the opportunity to learn his story.
  
  Richie Partington, MLIS
  Richie's Picks
  http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
  
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• 
  Linda

  In the midst of reading all the poetry for Cybils Awards, I managed to finish this wonderful non-fiction story of the main characters who surprised everyone in their secret plans to kill Hitler. This will be a great introduction to the way Hitler increased his power, slowly creating more laws against those he deemed not worthy of the Aryan standard, which he created as well. The focus is on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a son of a prominent German family who felt left out when his brothers and sisters found their own respected passions and careers. He had no idea what was meant for him. He was thoughtful, quiet, and lonely. But then he found that his faith invited his questioning and he became a pastor. And eventually, he became a pacifist, working hard against the war that he saw about to happen. He worked hard, even against his own superiors, to end Hitler's hate-filled agenda, but was denied again and again. At the end, he turned to the only answer he and his secret cohorts believed would work. Hitler must be assassinated! The intrigue and introduction year by year of the atrocities, the deniers, and the supporters is fascinating. Dietrich is a religious figure whose writings are still read and respected today, something I didn't know. This is another part of the story of Hitler and those who fought against him that will add to students' and others' knowledge. Great book!
• 
  Carie

  Wow! I couldn't put this down. At only about 150 pages, it's a very quick read and geared for middle school and up. But all adults should read it. And this true story about how a peaceful, devout Christian pastor, felt the intense need to make his voice heard (even when it involved sacrificing his own life) seems very timely at the moment.
• 
  Kim Bahr

  Quick, powerful read! Learned so much about events after WWI, the beginning of Hitler’s rule, and opposition to Hitler. Many ideas to ponder!
• 
  Kayla

  One of my 2018 bookish goals has been to read more nonfiction. I definitely haven't done as well with that as I wanted to. Last night, I wad thinking about how I wanted to accomplish that goal, so I picked The Plot to Kill Hitler off of my bookshelf. I started and finished it in one sitting.
  
  I never really know how to write reviews for nonfiction books because they are about events that actually happened. There are no characters or plot to judge, etc etc. That being said, I did think this book was informative. I knew absolutely nothing about Dietrich Bonhoeffer before reading this book. In fact, the only thing I really knew about World War II were the basics that were learned in high school, and a few things I picked up from reading historical fiction books about the subject over the years. I found Dietrich Bonhoeffer to be a very admirable person. Not only was he incredibly brave in a time where it was dangerous to do so, but he was very devout in his faith as well. No matter what hellish thing he was going through, he never lost his belief system, or wavered for a second. I only hope that I could be like that.
  
  That being said, the way this book was written wasn't very interesting. It was almost like reading a simplified textbook. I understand that can happen with nonfiction sometimes, but it made it so most of the book didn't stick in my mind. It's the morning after reading this book when I'm writing the review, and I only remember the basic things that happened. I couldn't tell you anything in particular detail, other than the suitcase bombing, and that's because it was the biggest part of the book, in my opinion. I think if the author would have written the book in a way where it flowed like a story while still obviously being nonfiction, instead of just stating facts, I would have remembered more.
  
  Even though The Plot to Kill Hitler wasn't that memorable, I did enjoy what I do remember reading. I found Dietrich Bonhoeffer to be an interesting person with a great morale compass. The book did make me want t do more research on him. I will probably find other books about him to read, and lesser known people like him that were heroes in their own way during World War II. I find the lesser known stories more interesting than the well known ones sometimes.
• 
  Olivia Giles

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up in Germany during the years of the first and second world wards. He had always been a quite, fairly reserved young man. Even when he was a child, he often preferred to be alone, left to his thoughts. He thought deeply about many things, especially spiritual matters, and thus it wasn't much of a surprise when he decided that he wanted to pursue the ministry as a career when he got older. He studied at several different universities, even Union Theological University in the United States. The experiences that he had there changed and shaped his mentality of what the church should look like drastically. After witnessing the great poverty and the "separate but equal" persecution faced by the African American minority, Bonhoeffer developed a place in his heart for the outcasts and castaways within society. Upon his return to his home in Germany, things had gotten much worse. The Nazi party was rising in power, and Jews and other minorities were being horrifically persecuted. Bonhoeffer tried to do all he could to encourage his fellow clergymen and others to stand up against this blatant injustice, but his efforts seemed to be to no avail. Eventually, Bonhoeffer joined a conspiracy group plotting to assassinate Hitler. The book tells of their sacrifices, various acts of treason, their several unsuccessful attempts at assassination, and their eventual sorrowful yet admirable fates.
  
  My Personal Reaction:
  This book takes a harsh look at the reality of our world's past. The Holocaust is never an easy topic to write or read about, but McCormick does an outstanding job at bringing the story to life, helping the reader to feel in a small sense the terrors and sentiments of the time. I think I especially enjoyed it because it was the story of an ordinary man that participated in something extraordinary, something much bigger than himself. The novel held many life lessons to be pondered and learned from. It taught about integrity to one's own beliefs and taking action even in the face of danger. It discusses faith and other moral questions, such as when is murder justifiable. McCormick is not afraid to discuss and bring to the light hard topics that are sometimes uncomfortable to discuss.
  
  Content warnings: Includes real horrific descriptions of persecution and injustice that took place at the time. Racial sentiments (towards Jews, blacks, and other ethnic groups). No gruesome images, however. No foul language.
• 
  Andrew Montgomery

  I’ll start by saying I did not realize this book was for children until I started reading. It certainly would have been helpful if that had been in the description or title or something. Aside from that, the book was pretty good, though I would have liked to read in more detail about Bonhoeffer. I guess I’ll need to read a full length biography for that.
  
  I was also a little surprised that almost the entirety of this book was written from secondary source research. I think the author may have quoted directly from one of Bonhoeffer’s works once, and there was just as little citation from other primary sources from the time. Why would I read this when I could just read one of the biographies the author drew from so extensively?
  
  All in all, I think the best thing this book has going for it is that there is likely to be no competition for a children’s book about Bonhoeffer, so if that’s what someone is looking for, there is no better book to read.
• 
  Reesie

  I started and finished this book in just a few hours. I picked it up because I thought it could be a cool, easy-to-read, interesting perspective on Nazism but I think I found a new role model in Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was an absolutely amazing guy, from a timid child to one of the only people to fight back against Hitler. Kind of a depressing story but so worth the read.
• 
  Mary Clare

  Though it is scrupulously well-researched and earnest in its message, I found this biography of a hero of the German resistance to the Nazi regime to be pretty dry. I wish that McCormick had infused it with more of the dramatic tension that is so well-done in her fiction. I did sell quite a few copies of this at our recent book fair, so I will be curious to hear feedback from my middle school World War II scholars.
• 
  Eric

  The Plot to Kill Hitler is an awe-inspiring novel focused on a pastor and philosopher named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Living in Nazi Germany, Dietrich is shooked by the brutal treatment of the Jewish people. What I admire about Dietrich are his courage and persistence. He could've done nothing opposing the Nazi party, but he decided to risk his life by helping Jews escape Germany and trying to make other countries aware of what was going on in Germany, which was committing treason. Like the man declared himself, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Doing nothing against the evilness of the Nazi party is obeying them and is, therefore, being evil. Dietrich would also then eventually join the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. Even though the conspiracy did not succeed in the end, they tried very hard in the process and the team worked very well. This book is very informative and well-written about this incredible man who stood up to try to make a change, unlike so many Germans that did not. I thought that the author did well on this non-fiction book to make it interesting to the readers as if it were a fiction one.
• 
  em

  Wow, I learned a lot from this book.
  
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up a timid child who was overshadowed by his brilliant older siblings, but he grew up to be a hero, the first person to alert the world to the Holocaust and a participant in an assassination plot to stop Hitler. The question this book attempts to answer is: how did an unassuming theologian like Bonhoeffer end up as one of the bravest members of the resistance? And how did he reconcile their use of violence with his pacifist outlook?
  
  I found the section about his initial attraction to the church and to the career of a pastor to be really interesting, and though I wish the book went more in-depth about his philosophy, it was fascinating to read about how he was drawn to theology despite not coming from a particularly religious family, and also that visiting America was so instrumental in forming his outlook.
  
  I was constantly in awe of Bonhoeffer's bravery and selflessness-- at one point, he had been evacuated by his family to the US in order to escape Germany before the war, but he went back home to continue fighting for the church in Germany. I definitely don't think I would have done that.
  
  That brings me to the next main thing I learned from this book. One of the main reasons why Bonhoeffer opposed the Nazis was because Hitler wanted to overhaul the church-- replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf and Christian symbols with the swastika. I had no idea that this was happening. Bonhoeffer returned to Germany from the US in order to start up an oppositional movement called the Confessing Church, and it was after this that he joined some of his friends in plotting to assassinate Hitler.
  
  Every time I read about WW2 resistance movements, I ask myself what I would do if I had lived during that time and I had to make the choice to risk my life fighting for righteousness-- and I am never sure that I would be able to do it. The courage of these people is truly amazing.
• 
  Daniel Ray

  SPOILER ALERT
  
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a highly principled and outspoken minister who refused to go along with Hitler’s pre-war mandates for the church and attacks on the Jews. After several warnings from the church to stop protesting, he was terminated. He passed on a life in the USA. He smuggled documents throughout Europe providing proof that Jews were being terminated. After getting nowhere and after much religious contemplation, he joined a plot to kill Hitler. Several unsuccessful attempts were made by the group on Hitler’s life. An arrest was made and they caught onto Bonhoeffer and the others. He was hanged just 3 weeks before Hitler committed suicide.
• 
  Diane Francis

  This was an amazing book that outlined the role Dietrich Bonhoeffer and many of his family members played in the plot to kill Hitler. Without their service and sacrifice the world would be a different place. These young men are true heroes, who should be an example to all! Heroes in faith and in battle! Please take the time to read this book! It is so important to know Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his family!
• 
  Annette Alden

  This book is a 7.6 grade level, and would be ideal for older kids wanting a biography or book about WWII and its atrocities. I think the book would appeal to Christians as well as a broader audience.
• 
  Patrick

  It's good, and it is written to be accessible to a very young audience for the heavy subject matter. The chapters are very short and often end with heavy foreshadowing.
  
  In the end, Bonhoeffer is kind of a weird choice to be the featured character in this telling of the story of the plot to kill Hitler. His brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, who was a lawyer for the German court, did most of the risky things. Also, Admiral Canaris, whom I had heard of before. I want to read another book about von Dohnanyi.
  
  But I also really liked the framing of the story through Bonhoeffer because it talked about the religious aspects of Hitler's propaganda and the moral dilemmas faced by religious Germans much more than I had ever thought about. I knew/assumed that religious objectors had kept their heads down, but learned that they were executed if they resisted in any way after the first few years of Hitler's reign. But the leaders of the Lutheran church didn't just silently not dissent, many joined Hitler, replaced the cross with swastikas, and vocally supported his Aryan supremacy campaign in exchange for power. They eventually let him form a "reichschurch" that used Mein Kampf as a holy book and basically venerated Hitler.
  
  This seems like a historical faith crisis comparable to the Inquisition for the Catholic church, even if much, much shorter. I am interested in reading more about this.
  
  Anyway, the book is good. My 9-yr-old read and enjoyed it as well. It's sad.
• 
  Natalie

  Nazis really are depressing. I typically avoid reading World War II books for that reason. When I order books for my school classroom, I like to try and read them before putting them out, hence reading this book.
  
  It was well-written. I would give it 5 stars for accessibility and research. But, since I don't really like these stories I had to round down.
  
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a fascinating read. I loved learning about his family. I found them very brave. They are the type of people Gandalf was talking about when he spoke to Frodo:
  
  “'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo. 'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'”
  
  The Bonhoeffers chose to be brave and honorable. Dietrich's story is tragic, like so many from World War II, but he's an inspiring figure.
• 
  Georgene

  I had never heard of this man, although I had heard of the plot to kill Hitler. This is a Battle of the Books book in my school and it looked interesting, so I read it, in one day.
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a very inspiring man who, despite his wealthy upbringing, lived in service to others. He was a pacifist who did not believe in killing another human being, but he felt that Hitler and Nazism had to be stopped in order to save many millions of people from being killed. Therefore, he worked with a small group of others including his brother-in-laws and a few high-ranking people in Hitler's government to kill Hitler. Unfortunately, the plot failed.
  This book would be interesting for anyone who likes history, especially of the WWII era.
• 
  Nick Paine

  A captivating short read on the surprising involvement of an avowed German pacifist in the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler. This books briefly traces the life of Bonhoeffer and his key theological motivations for his later actions during the war. Although one may disagree with his eventual succumbing to violence as a necessary course of action, the reader is moved by the valor of a man who genuinely sought to act rightly in the midst of the hell of the Nazi regime. Some, like Bonhoeffer, felt that no one came through the war without guilt. For either one was guilty of complying with the evils of the Third Reich, or they were guilty of insubordination and resistance of their God-ordained government.
  
  A thought provoking but easy historical read!
• 
  Ben

  This was condensed version of Eric Metaxes’ book “Bonhoeffer”. I hoped that this book might give more insight into the actual plot to kill Hitler (as the name of the book suggests) but instead it follows Bonhoeffer’s life from infancy, through his travels, his work as a pastor, and only at the end did it talk about his role in the plot to kill Hitler.
  
  With that said, it is a good book and gives its reader a short and quick version of Metaxas’ book. I love Bonhoeffer’s life story and I can appreciate authors like Metaxas and McCormick who have written about his life and work. I think many people will enjoy this short read about a remarkable man.
• 
  Mary-Jane

  First of all, I am so grateful to the author, Patricia McCormick for recognizing that the unlikely hero Bonhoeffer is a person that young people should know about. I have always loved reading about Bonhoeffer but to be able to simplify his biography without watering down his personality or accomplishments so that children can learn about him, well, that’s a gift. I can’t WAIT to booktalk this with students. I am still moved by Bonhoeffer’s thoughts and words about how people should behave in the face of injustices and am not surprised that his pleas for justice echo as loudly today as ever.