This Day in WWII History: Apr 8, 1945: Defiant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged

 

On this day in 1945, Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged at Flossenburg, only days before the American liberation of the POW camp. The last words of the brilliant and courageous 39-year-old opponent of Nazism were "This is the end--for me, the beginning of life."

 

Two days after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, lecturer at Berlin University, took to the radio and denounced the Nazi Fuhrerprinzip, the leadership principle that was merely a synonym for dictatorship. Bonhoeffer's broadcast was cut off before he could finish. Shortly thereafter, he moved to London to pastor a German congregation, while also giving support to the Confessing Church movement in Germany, a declaration by Lutheran and evangelical pastors and theologians that they would not have their churches co-opted by the Nazi government for propagandistic purposes.

 

 

Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1935 to run a seminary for the Confessing Church; the government closed it in 1937. Bonhoeffer's continued vocal objections to Nazi policies resulted in his losing his freedom to lecture or publish. He soon joined the German resistance movement, even the plot to assassinate Hitler. In April 1943, shortly after becoming engaged to be married, Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo.

 

 

Evidence implicating him in the plot to overthrow the government came to light and he was court-martialed and sentenced to die. While in prison, he acted as a counselor and pastor to prisoners of all denominations. Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison was published posthumously. Among his celebrated works of theology are The Cost of Discipleship and Ethics.

 

Taken from:  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/defiant-theologian-dietrich-bonhoeffer-is-hanged [08.04.2014]

This Day in WWII History: Apr 7, 1939: Italy invades Albania

 

On this day in 1939, in an effort to mimic Hitler's conquest of Prague, Benito Mussolini's troops, though badly organized, invade and occupy Albania.

 

 

Although the invasion of Albania was intended as but a prelude to greater conquests in the Balkans, it proved a costly enterprise for Il Duce. Albania was already dependent on Italy's economy, so had little to offer the invaders. And future exploits in neighboring nations, in Greece in particular, proved to be disastrous for the Italians.

 

 

 

 

Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/italy-invades-albania [07.04.2014]

This Day in WWII History: Apr 4, 1884: Yamamoto Isoroku, Japan's mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack, is born

Yamamoto Isoroku, perhaps Japan's greatest strategist and the officer who would contrive the surprise air attack on U.S. naval forces at Pearl Harbor, is born on this day in 1884.

A graduate of the Japanese naval academy in 1904, Yamamoto worked as a naval attaché for the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1926 to 1927. During the next 15 years, he saw several promotions, from vice minister of the Japanese navy to commander in chief of Japan's Combined Fleet in August 1941.

Despite worsening Japanese-American relations (especially in light of Japan's alliance with Germany and Italy), Yamamoto initially opposed war with the U.S., mostly out of fear that a prolonged conflict would go badly for Japan. But once the government of Prime Minister Tojo Hideki decided on war, Yamamoto argued that only a surprise attack aimed at crippling U.S. naval forces in the Pacific had any hope of victory. He also predicted that if war with America lasted more than one year, Japan would lose.

Yamamoto meticulously planned and carried out the Japanese air strike on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, December 7, 1941. Waves of dive bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters descended on U.S. battleships, capsizing, destroying, or immobilizing several U.S. battleships within the first 30 minutes of the raid. The attack was a decided success, especially in catching the United States off guard, and resulted in the destruction of 180 U.S. aircraft and more than 3,400 American casualties.

U.S. forces finally caught up with Yamamoto, though, when they ambushed his plane and shot him down over Bougainville Island in 1943. Yamamoto died having been right about two things: the effectiveness of aircraft carriers in long-range naval attacks and that Japan would lose a drawn-out struggle with the United States.

Yamamoto was portrayed by Toshiro Mifune, an Akira Kurosawa regular, in three films, I Bombed Pearl Harbor (1961), Admiral Yamamoto (1968), and Midway (1974).

 

Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yamamoto-isoroku-japans-mastermind-of-the-pearl-harbor-attack-is-born [04.03.2014]