[music & hammer pounding]
[wing flaps]
[music & thunder]
[somber music]
YOUNG DIETRICH: You never catch me, Walter!
No one will.
I'm so fast, I'm invisible.
WALTER: You may be faster than a cheetah, little brother,
but I can see you plain as day. And I will eat you for dinner.
You only think you can see me. That's part of the spell.
Oh...
I told Walter I was invisible,
but I don't think he believes me.
Yeah. He's right.
I mean, I can see you standing here
with a grass stain on your new lederhosen.
Just hurry. Mother.
I need another spell.
Lucky enough for you,
strawberries can make a boy disappear completely.
-Really? -Yeah.
Ha!
Special powers...
- From a strawberry? - Invisibility.
Again?
- This one really works. Tell him, Mother.
Yeah. It takes a minute to work.
Yeah, it takes a minute.
Oh.
Hi, Papa.
Hello, Dietrich.
Walter?
- Yes.
- Haven't given up yet.
Never.
Exactly.
You will never catch that boy.
You can't hide forever.
Ha!
Gotcha!
Dietrich!
[door slams shut]
[footsteps]
Shh!
[floor creaks]
Hi, Walter.
[running footsteps]
[man yells angrily in German]
GESTAPO: No talking.
[jet flies above]
GESTAPO: There was a bridge here.
I swear to you, sir.
- Bridges don't like bombs.
- This means another 50 miles just to find a way across.
- Why are we stopping in the middle of hell?
-They mean to throw us over the ravine.
-No, no. That's not it.
There used to be a bridge here.
They are taking us somewhere. Awaiting orders.
As long as we're on this bus.
We are safe.
-Safe?
What is safe?
[explosion in the distance]
[more jets flying above]
[explosions]
[jets flying and explosions]
We need to move, now.
[man yells angrily in German]
KNOBLAUCH: Get us north.
[somber music]
PAULA: It's not goodbye, Walter.
- You have everything in your suitcase?
- Yes, Mother.
Including the extra toothbrushes
you hid in my socks.
So now I have three.
-You can give one to a soldier whose mother is not so...
attentive.
KARL: It's the right thing at the right time.
And you will come home a hero
to a country that will always be grateful.
-Well, I think things might actually be quiet on the front.
Christel, don't be sad.
Susanne.
Klaus.
Sabine.
Dietrich.
You better stock up on strawberries,
little brother,
because I will be home before you know where to hide.
[engine starts]
YOUNG DIETRICH: Walter!
Walter! Stay!
Walter!
[music intensifies]
[somber music]
[thunder]
[soft piano music]
-That is Walter's favorite song.
-Don't stop. Sweetheart.
Walter loved that song.
Why did you stop?
- I'll never play it again.
- Of course you will.
-No one listened to Walter's song.
No one cared.
-Everyone cares.
They're just swept up in their thoughts of Walter.
-I don't know what to do, Mother.
I know.
-Walter asked me,
If he didn't come home from the war--
he said, “Tell little brother
that I underlined all the good parts.”
[emotional music]
Ahh.
-Walter needed a strawberry, Mama.
-Yes. Yes, he did, my love.
[ominous music]
[dogs bark]
[prison cells open]
[Speaking in German]
PROFESSOR FOSDICK: Nearly 100 years. A century...
...of excellence and learning
in the service of Unitas,
Veritas.
Caritas. 100 years.
-This lecture has been going on about one hundred years.
PROFESSOR FOSDICK: In 1836,
the founders of Union were
deeply impressed by the demands of the world
upon the church
and forged a new vision
for theological education
right here in New York City.
Mr. Bonhoeffer.
I'm certain that the German theologians
that sent their star pupil from Berlin
would not want him squandering his time
on small jokes and idle chatter.
-Forgive me, professor.
-Yeah.
DIETRICH: Inflicting that level of boredom
should absolutely get a man fired.
FISHER: If bad lectures got a man fired at Union,
this seminary would have been empty a long time ago.
-I've been here three weeks,
and I feel like I could teach most of these classes.
-That's what happens when you study the words so closely.
You forget there's a god behind them.
-Then what brought you here all the way from Alabama?
-I didn't come for Union but the city in which it resides.
New. York. City.
You know, D, not every church has a steeple.
[background conversation & traffic]
MAN IN QUEUE: What do you say?
DOORMAN: Good to see you, Frank.
[women speaking in background]
[jazz music starts]
FISHER: Hey.
Good to see you.
Yo. I'll have the same one. On the spritz.
Hey, baby.
AVA: Frank Fisher.
FISHER: Ava. I love your dress.
AVA: Have I heard that line before?
[trumpet soloist begins]
-What is this?
-This is jazz.
- I've played piano since I was a child,
but I feel like until now I've never heard music.
ARMSTRONG: If you can play, come on up.
Let's see what you got.
[soft piano music]
[gospel choir begins]
♪ Leave it there. ♪
♪ If you have all your faith ♪
♪ and the Lord is always here. ♪
♪ And you have to get along ♪
♪ with meager fare. ♪
♪ Just remember, ♪ ♪ in His word, ♪
♪ How He feeds ♪ ♪ the little bird. ♪
♪ Take your burden ♪ ♪ to the Lord, ♪
♪ leave it there. ♪
-And that's why Pinocchio...
is the greatest fictional character ever created.
Anna: Excuse me, Mr. B. -Yes.
-Mama said this is supposed to be Sunday school.
-Oh, this is Sunday school. Just more school on Sunday.
And every day is a day to learn.
Veronica: I already know what that story means.
Don't lie
or your nose will grow like a snake made out of wood.
HENRY: Not a snake made out of wood.
The lesson is, if you want to be a real boy,
it's a lot harder than being a puppet.
-Henry's exactly right.
It's difficult to be a real boy.
To tell the truth.
To love.
To have compassion for others.
That's what makes you fully human.
But if you live by love, then you don't want to lie.
You want to be real.
And your strings...
[makes popping sound]
...get cut.
-And you don't get a snake made out of wood as a nose either.
-Yes, that's a side benefit.
[children laugh]
- We sneaking out early to go hear the choir again?
♪ Call your souls away. ♪
♪ If you're fighting, ♪ ♪ striving for the right, ♪
♪ you shall wear a golden crown. ♪
♪ - I shall wear a crown. ♪ ♪ I shall wear a crown. ♪
♪ - When the trumpet sounds ♪
♪ - Oh Lord ♪
♪ When the trumpet sounds ♪
♪ I shall wear a crown, ♪ ♪ I shall wear a crown ♪
♪ I shall wear a robe and crown. ♪
- Let the church say amen. - Amen.
- Amen.
DIETRICH: Three months I've been coming,
and I still can't believe church can be like this.
REV POWELL: I take it that you don't have
churches like us in Berlin?
Oh, not in Berlin or in Paris or in all of Europe.
Well, God asked us to attend a party.
To partake in fellowship.
To love.
And sometimes love can be loud.
Especially here in Harlem.
So where were you when you first met the Lord?
Met?
I don't understand.
I'll tell you where I was.
I was playing craps in the alley
in Cabin Creek, West Virginia.
Losing money like I could print it at home.
By midnight I was down a hundred
and only my fast feet
were gonna save me from the back end of a jail.
So I ran,
but I found myself not more than thirty yards
from a Baptist revival tent.
And you know who was waiting for me inside?
The Lord.
He was in every lit-up face of the gospel singers.
He was in the salty words of that traveling preacher.
He was in the sweet loving hands
of that grandmother that led me to my seat.
But he was also in the broken souls
of every liar, cheat and sinner
in that blessed tent.
Because Jesus...
was with His people.
Just like He promised.
And, Dietrich, he filled that place,
so as to tear at the very seams of that tent.
And he filled me up to overflowin' ever since.
-I want that.
-Well, it's simple, son.
“Taste.
And see that the Lord is good.”
-I know He's good.
REV POWELL: But do you know how good?
A man can waste a whole lifetime...
saying God is good
and never asking Him to show the fullness of His glory.
- Hallelujah. - Hallelujah!
- Whoa.
But hallelujah ain't gonna do all the work now.
And there is so much more work to be done.
- Amen. - That's right.
REV POWELL: Did you see that black flag
hanging from the building?
-Yes.
FISHER: That's for Thomas Shipp, innocent man,
lynched three days ago in Marion, Indiana.
-We may be free in our souls,
but there's another freedom that we seek.
A God-given freedom
that man has deigned to take away.
- I am so sorry.
FISHER: We don't need you to be sorry, D.
We need you to tell the world.
- Yeah, son. You think we invited you
just to show you the good places to eat?
Ha ha!
-We should take him to South Carolina,
see if he still wants to hang out with us.
-How about south of 110th Street?
Dietrich don't know he in Negro heaven.
REV POWELL: That's a brilliant idea.
Frank, why don't you take him on a road trip?
-How far you think we should go?
REV POWELL: I think to be safe, let's say DC.
He can see Lincoln statue and the white man's statutes.
See which one speaks louder.
-Got you again. Olly olly oxen free.
-Goose Goslin with the goner.
-Our friendship is not as...
alien as you predicted.
-We haven't asked for anything yet.
Go book a room, pay for it, come get me after.
-Good evening. A room. Just for a night.
-That'll be $2.
-Two dollars, huh.
Seems fair.
- Let's go see how fair.
-No rooms to let.
- Good night. - Kind sir.
My friend just booked a room.
He paid a good two dollars. He invited me here.
Whoa, whoa, sir.
-Who in hell...
would wanna be friends with a tar baby like you?
DIETRICH: He's my friend. I have a key.
[intense musical buildup]
Sir, by the cross on the wall,
I can see that you're my brother under Christ.
As my friend Frank here is too.
Surely our love of the Lord unites us.
I paid for this room,
and Frank and I,
we are going to stay in this--
-How dare...
you animals interrupt my quiet evening
with your violence.
The next one comes from the other end of this gun.
-Hey, hey, slow down, man.
Dietrich. Where you rushing to?
-I should have torn that cross off his wall.
-Oh, now, now. Dietrich...
How many cheeks you have to turn?
Hold on, now. Dietrich!
How many maniacs do I have to save you from?
-There's always an inn at the end of the search.
- Always. That much I know. - Dietrich. Listen to me.
Sometimes there's just a manger.
DIETRICH: I'm so embarrassed.
I put you in danger.
- No more danger than I face any day.
-How could I think it would work,
simply because I wanted it to work?
-It's alright, D. It's alright.
-I could not raise a hand against another man.
This kind of hate...
takes something stronger than a punch.
-Sometimes a punch makes some necessary noise.
And sometimes...
it's just as useless as spitting in the wind.
-We're so fortunate not having anything like this in Germany.
-My brother,
hate comes in every color.
Your eyes just haven't been opened yet.
-Our hosts must have a special distaste
for you and me, Herr Bonhoeffer.
-I don't know you.
-Doctor Sigmund Rascher,
once the Führer's championed scientist.
And you are Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
the pastor who forgot to love his enemy.
- Yeah. I know why I'm here.
But you, you...
were his golden child.
DR RASCHER: The Führer thanked me
for studying the Juden's final moments.
To make the choice to stop a heart.
That is my greatest accomplishment.
For what is a life...
if we do not comprehend its ending?
Alas, there was no cure for my Führer's jealousy.
-Jealousy.
-I made the fatal mistake of not pretending that
he was smarter than I.
So for all my work,
I get a trap door and a piece of rope.
[intense music]
-That's what we all get.
- I should be fitted for a crown...
one day.
Our season may have ended,
but it will come again.
-Your season
ended long ago.
'The light came into the world,
and the darkness did not overcome it.'
-Look around you, my friend.
How much light do you see?
♪ Oh, I've just found joy ♪
♪ I'm as happy as a baby boy ♪
♪ With another brand new ♪ ♪ choo-choo toy ♪
♪ when I'm with my sweet Lorraine. ♪
♪ A pair of eyes ♪
♪ That are bluer than ♪ ♪ the summer skies ♪
♪ When you see them, ♪ ♪ you'll realize ♪
♪ why I love my sweet Lorraine. ♪
♪ Oh, I'm so happy ♪
♪ When it's raining ♪ ♪ I don't miss the sun ♪
♪ For it's in my sweetie's smile ♪
♪ Just to think that ♪ ♪ I'm the lucky one ♪
♪ Who will lead her down the aisle ♪
♪ Oh, each night I pray ♪
♪ That nobody takes her heart away ♪
♪ I can't wait until ♪ ♪ that happy day ♪
♪ When I marry sweet Lorraine ♪
-It's all right to clap now.
-That music is...
- It's called jazz.
And it reinvents your ears with every note.
-I'm glad you're home, brother.
Germany was emptier without you.
-Can you tell us one more thing before I go up?
One thing we couldn't imagine about America.
-Alright. It's this.
In the German church,
I was headed into the dead end of religion.
[radio plays news]
Father, did you hear me?
-Yes.
DIETRICH: I don't want to pursue theology any longer.
KARL: Thank God.
Such a fine mind was always too good for the church.
DIETRICH: In Harlem, I finally saw real faith,
instead of dead religion.
And now I plan on teaching the German church all about it.
-Wait. The church?
But you just said you were done with religion.
-I am. As should be the church.
KARL: I like that, son. You're still cocky.
Trying to teach the church?
They sure could use some
damn instructions at the moment.
-Karl.
HANS: The Nazis rise to power
has everyone a little anxious, Dietrich.
-The Nazis?
They only got, what was it, eighteen percent in '30?
And that was a mirage.
-Well, this year's mirage will double that.
-I don't believe it.
KARL: That's because you were away
while Hitler used the Versailles Treaty
like his personal weapon.
Every bad thing that ever happened in Germany
landed on the doorsteps of the Jews and the communists,
and there were
enough working people
begging for bread to believe it.
-There's no chance that
this loudmouth from Austria
will have fooled enough Germans by then.
-But Hitler only has to fool the Germans
who come out to vote.
-But he's still only one man.
If he does somehow manage to sneak in,
we'll vote him out next time.
Just like we did with Ebert, and Simons.
-See? Your mother still believes in
the wisdom of people.
Unfortunately, that's how tyrants win.
- So now it's my fault that Hitler
will become chancellor?
KARL: Things have changed, Paula.
The country has grown angrier,
and people are falling prey
to this nationalism and paranoia.
HANS: And the Nazis feed off that.
They've been systematic,
fighting for every local election,
each tiny hamlet,
prying the country from our hands
while few were even watching.
And the church, no doubt, bears some blame.
KARL: Oh, yeah.
Hitler and his new Bishop Müller
now call it the Reichskirche.
The Church of the Third Reich.
-One man cannot change the name of the whole church.
KARL: He already has, Dietrich.
HANS: I've heard via my office that the Nazis plan
to identify and dispose of people
with mental disabilities.
-Father, that can't be true.
DIETRICH: You speak in nightmares.
Well, surely rumor and rage cannot win the day.
-Unless the day is already lost.
[footsteps]
SABINE: Shouldn't smoke in bed.
DIETRICH: When we were little,
I used to steal father's cigarettes
and pretend to smoke them up here.
- Me too.
- Never got past one puff.
I guess we've graduated.
-Remember, we would lie here staring at the ceiling,
call out to Walter in heaven.
-Yeah.
Every night for years.
-Eternity. Eternity. Eternity.
-Eternity.
Like a song. An invitation.
Eternity. Eternity. -Eternity.
-It never worked.
-It worked for me once.
-You never told me.
-I didn't want to make you feel bad.
He was wearing his uniform.
He was walking away
towards an umbrella.
- On a beach.
-He took off his hat.
-And left it in the sand.
And he walked on.
- Towards the sea.
-Must be true what they say about twins.
-Then you're as afraid as I am.
-I am.
But I don't know why.
-Something's coming.
Something unstoppable.
- Nothing is unstoppable.
SABINE: Eternity.
Eternity. Eternity.
Eternity.
SABINE: Eternity.
Eternity. Eternity.
Eternity.
[intense music]
Eternity... eternity.
Walter, where are you?
Sabine, I can't do this alone.
MÜLLER: Finally, my friends, we know who we are.
How long have we waited for this moment
when we can finally hear Germany's heart beat again?
At last we have read the writing
on the walls of this country's soul,
and the words are:
Chancellor Adolf Hitler!
God sent Germany a prophet.
And more than that.
A true Savior!
- To speak of any Savior but Christ from the pulpit...
blasphemy.
-Dietrich, everything new needs a moment to settle.
-We're in God's house
and the bishop is celebrating a man.
I don't need time to “let it settle.”
MÜLLER: So that we can solve the great challenges
facing our people.
To combine our shared power
so that we can achieve this together.
-Alright.
Alright, you don't support Hitler.
Many don't.
But that doesn't mean that you can make a distraction...
DIETRICH: They are building an idol to Hitler
inside those walls in real time.
NIEMÖLLER: You're exaggerating, Dietrich.
You've been away quite a while,
while this man has been building--
-building what?
An army of clergy, blinded by...
I don't even know what.
This man is without charm, without character or charisma.
-He has captured the nation's imagination, Dietrich.
And our churches are fuller than have been in years.
-But it's not about how many, Bishop, it's about who.
Don't you realize handing a man this kind of crown
will come with a terrible price?
-I can't agree.
-Both for us...
and those he so aggressively targeting, the Jews.
-Yeah. Surely Herr Hitler will resolve
the Jewish question too.
-Why must there even be a Jewish question?
This is our national cathedral.
-Dietrich,
it has long been our policy
that politics and the church should not intersect.
[audience claps in background]
-Listen to that applause.
They already have.
-What if I speak to Chancellor Hitler?
We both fought in the Great War.
He might listen.
-Then tell him the church does not belong to him
or any man.
It belongs to the living God.
-Not everything needs to be a fight, Dietrich.
Your heart is moving faster than your mind.
-Yes, speed matters.
If no one warns the German people,
they might think the entire clergy
agrees with Bishop Müller and his sycophants.
I have the pulpit at Kaiser Wilhelm in two weeks.
At Jacobi's invitation.
In fact, that might be the perfect opportunity
to speak up against...
-Now, listen closely, young friend.
Everyone will be paying attention.
including this bishop that still remains your superior.
I advise you recall
the words of the English writer William Shakespeare.
“Discretion is the better part of valor.”
-Yeah, I prefer the words of a Jewish writer, Paul.
'God has not given us a spirit of fear.'
-If you don't take your fear from God,
perhaps you should take it from your bishop.
[church bells ring]
KARL: I never understood kites.
All this effort and they take you nowhere.
DIETRICH: I think the idea is they get you to look up.
KARL: Oh. My optimistic son.
Everything always pointing to the sky.
You realize I come for these walks
to take a break from giving out advice, don't you?
-I'm sorry. I can figure it out myself.
-I'm sure you already have.
-I guess I'm just seeking permission to be brave.
-You don't need anyone's permission, son.
You already are.
-Thank you.
KARL: Don't thank me until after.
DIETRICH: After?
KARL: After whatever is requiring all this courage
in the first place.
[ominous music]
-They won't eat you, Dietrich.
At least not until after the sermon.
[dramatic music]
-“Woe to you, hypocrites,
You white-washed tombs,
outwardly beautiful,
inwardly full of dead man's bones.”
“You serpents, you vipers.
How can you escape damnation?”
These violent words are not my own.
They come from the mouth of our Lord.
And His harshest words were not for sinners
but always reserved
for the “religious”.
Because there has never been anyone in history
who hated religion more than Jesus Christ.
He never wanted our religion.
All he ever wanted...
was us.
Our full selves.
But we, the German church,
are on the verge of giving ourselves to another.
Of choosing full pews over full hearts.
The church should be a place of refuge,
a place of sanctuary,
not a place of power.
The German church must stand on God's word alone.
Not any man's word,
and especially not a Führer's word.
[dramatic music intensifies]
DIETRICH: Turn with me in scripture
to Matthew chapter five.
-It's been a long time since I've heard truth
preached from their pulpit.
Thank you.
-I wish you were preaching every Sunday.
Might actually get my Otto back to church.
-What a privilege to be with you all.
-Oh, yes, it was a privilege. One squandered.
But now you have people's attention, Dietrich.
Perhaps that's everything you've ever wanted.
-I'm sorry if...
-The truth doesn't apologize for being true.
The truth also separates marrow from bone.
You are on the other side of those words now, Dietrich.
Beware,
you're not standing on the same ground you were yesterday.
-I'm so proud.
...just brilliant, brother.
-Thank you. -Brilliant.
-Mother. Father.
-Courage needed, Son.
Courage shown.
-You were wonderful, son.
But it looked like you were painting a target on your chest
with every single sentence.
-Better a target than a swastika.
-Why does there have to be a target?
There were not so many in the church today.
-A message like that,
it's not the size of the crowd
but who's been paying attention.
[crowd cheers]
-For the members of the church under Hitler, the Reichskirche,
demand the immediate cessation
of the publishing and dissemination
of the Jewish Bible in Germany.
-Per order by the Führer! Mein Führer!
KRAUSE: The Christ of the new German Bible will be Aryan,
with no Jewish roots. No Jewish weakness.
The church must clear away all crucifixes, Bibles
and images of the saints,
and replace them
with our leader's glorious words.
And it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol,
the swastika!
[crowd cheers]
[Speaking in German]
[men argue in background]
[Speaking in German]
Matthias?
Matthias.
Matthias. Hey,
you don't think I know it's you
just because you're playing dress-up?
Rudolph, enough of this Karneval.
Boys, what is this?
Catechism is in five minutes inside. What...
Wilhelm.
Heinrich, look at me.
This is madness!
This is not a joke to be played.
Hey, I don't need your hands on me, sir.
-You need more than that. -They are children!
-Go back inside, pastor.
The church youth are now the Hitler Youth,
as it should be.
-Some problem here, Max?
-Only that this clergyman seems to have lost his flock.
[car door slams shut]
JACOBI: Dietrich, listen to me.
-The church youth is now costumed as the Hitler Youth.
I mean, how long until the entire country is
painted black?
So what can we do? Because do something we must.
-It's not what we can do.
It's what you can do.
Sit down, Herr Bonhoeffer.
My every move is being watched
since I gave you that Sunday at Kaiser Wilhelm.
We need someone young
who has staked a claim for the truth already.
-No one's been interested in speaking to me
since the last time I opened my mouth.
-You may not know it, but your sermon
not only angered the Nazis,
it also galvanized a whole raft of seminary students
and made you friends in places
where they never even go to church.
-Good. Because more than
the church's life is on the line.
This is a knife to the heart of the nation.
-Bravery is a rare commodity, Dietrich.
[dramatic music]
Especially when it's needed the most.
Can you rally more than your words to this cause?
-I'm ready for anything, sir.
-I'm about to ask you to save the German church.
-To save it,
we'll have to split it apart.
-You will go to England as our spy.
Bishop Bell, he's already waiting.
JACOBI: Your job will be simple.
Tell him the truth so we can set it free.
DIETRICH: If the river gets any higher,
we're going to have a second baptism.
-Well, it's the first day in a month
it hasn't rained in West Sussex.
-You keep an eye out for Noah.
Thank you for meeting with me.
I know I'm too young to be a
messenger for Germany's worries.
-David was a teenager.
Moses was an old man.
God calls when He calls.
DIETRICH: What good is the church
if it doesn't speak for the victims of the state?
For those who have no voice.
The Jews.
RECTOR: The Jews?
DIETRICH: We cannot stand by
while the Jews are being persecuted.
BISHOP 1: You bring us a problem
of which there is no proof.
How do we know that this is simply not Jewish propaganda?
DIETRICH: I have seen the yellow stars,
the violence in the streets.
Hitler has carved them out of society.
Left them stateless, unprotected.
So look me in the eye and call me propaganda.
I have secreted myself here to tell you
that the true German church has no alternative
but to break away from the false church of the Nazis,
their Reichskirche.
We need to let the world know what the Nazis are
doing to the Jews.
And if the church does not speak now,
we will lose our voice for a hundred years.
BISHOP 1: This is a German problem,
not an international one.
-Hitler took Germany and her church
without firing a single bullet.
How many will he have to fire at you?
BISHOP 3: But you speak of bullets
when you should be planning diplomacy.
BISHOP 4: The church's job is to kindle peace, peacefully.
-Oh, You mean silently.
-If need be.
-Our silence in the face of evil is itself evil.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.
[background conversation]
BISHOP BELL: I agree with Dietrich.
Hitler is a threat to all humanity.
-The church
should be the first to make that announcement.
Not the last.
BISHOP BELL: Now, Dietrich is going to speak,
and the scrivener is going to write,
and unless you have anything to add,
I suggest we all enter a silent period.
[suspenseful music]
We, the Confessing Church in Germany,
reject the false doctrines of the German Reich church.
We declare that the church does not belong to any man and
that it is under the authority of God alone.
WIFE: “The church exists not merely for its members,
but more vitally, for those who are not.”
PUBLICAN: “God calls the church
to be the conscience of the state
and where there are victims to bind up their wounds.”
CLEMENTINE: I do hope the frost doesn't punish my Comices.
CHURCHILL: Listen to this, Clemmie.
“And if the state harms and oppresses,
and for Germany, this means the Jews,
then the church must stand against the state,
must put a stick in the very wheel of the state
until it stops.”
CLEMENTINE: It sounds like Mr. Bonhoeffer and his merry men
just did what England are too afraid to do.
-What is that, darling?
-Declare war on Hitler.
[plane takes flight]
Over here!
MAN: Dietrich Bonhoeffer?
-Who needs to know?
DIETRICH: You can't just kidnap a German citizen
upon a German airport.
DRIVER: Turn around.
We leaked that you were arriving via Amsterdam.
It gave us just enough time
to meet your flight from Belfast.
MAN: Germany is no longer safe for you, Herr Bonhoeffer.
For any of us.
-And where is?
[tense music]
-I didn't know anyone in the church
still wanted to see me.
NIEMOLLER: Not the Reichskirche.
But the Confessing Church, yes.
And I have much to confess.
I had it completely wrong, Dietrich.
Can you...
Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?
-Bishop, of course.
-Come.
NIEMOLLER: It takes courage to face the dark.
And you faced it.
I was too busy closing my eyes, covering my ears.
-The church you tried to save
had become religion without Christ.
But what we need is Christ without religion.
You know, my father used to say,
“When you board the wrong train,
there's no use running down the aisle
in the opposite direction.”
-He's right.
But you also can just jump off the train
and start all over again.
We have smuggled the finest seminary students
from all over Germany here.
And we have brought them our finest teacher.
-I'm so glad it's you.
-No, it's not me, Dietrich.
It's you.
You have been called
for such a time as this, Dietrich.
Look. This is the new Nazi Bible. Take a look.
Jesus is now an Aryan.
And the Ten Commandments have become twelve.
DIETRICH: “Honor your Führer and master.
Keep the blood pure and your honor...”
This is the definition of unholy.
-Dietrich,
I am expected on my pulpit in Dahlem every Sunday.
I can't hide.
Or they will start looking for me
and discover all of this.
DIETRICH: I'm a young man myself.
What could I possibly teach these students?
-Teach them your heart.
-My heart? -Yes.
-My heart is broken.
-Then teach them that.
See, this is not a spiritual escape.
This is a literal escape.
Every young man down there
had been ticketed for the Eastern Front.
-So you brought us all here
so we could be kept in one place safe.
A prison
-No, this is not a prison, Dietrich.
This is a haven from which to launch our attack.
EBERHARD: Pastor Bonhoeffer.
My name is Eberhard Bethge,
one of the 23 students chosen, excommunicated,
by the German Church and Herr Müller.
We are honored to have you as our teacher.
-Then I think it's time for your first lesson.
Ready?
[joyful music]
Don't touch the ball. Come on.
Wake up!
Let's go. Come on.
Hey! Come on.
Come on.
DIETRICH: So my new friend Eberhard just informed me
that he knows his way around Gumpelzhaimer's “Agnus Dei”
and some few choice works of Heinrich Schütz,
which to me all sounded like some sort of punishment.
-So what will you play for us then, Dietrich?
-An evening this sweet calls for some
pure gospel music.
-Gospel?
-No more words.
All you have to do is listen.
[gospel music begins]
♪ Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot
DIETRICH: Coming to carry me home. ♪
Lord.
Carry me home now.
Lord, I'm ready.
To see Walter.
I'm ready to see you.
Take me home.
Lord.
Take me home.
[men yell in background]
PRISONER: Dietrich! Over here!
Dietrich! Over here.
DIETRICH: Check the locks.
DIETRICH: Gunther, free the others.
DIETRICH: Check the locks. Free the others. Come on.
PRISONER: Watch.
DIETRICH: Stay close. Watch for the guards.
PRISONER 1: Should we escape?
The garrison in the next village will shoot us dead.
PUNDER: This country is too big to escape from.
PRISONER 1: So we wait here to die?
Shh!
PUNDER: What do we do?
-We wait. We pray.
We act.
[tense music]
-No, no.
-No no no.
[gunshot]
GESTAPO: Stop!
[somber music]
EBERHARD: Dietrich.
This was three days ago.
-That's why Bishop Bell rushed it by secret courier.
He must have known the German papers
wouldn't be covering it.
I'm going to Berlin.
-That's madness. You'll be arrested immediately.
-Eberhard, I can't keep pretending that
praying and teaching is enough.
[car engine]
[dogs bark in background]
GESTAPO: Have your papers ready.
[man yells in background]
EBERHARD: There's no other road into Berlin from the north.
-We'll make our own road.
GESTAPO: We don't have all night. Come on!
[somber music]
NIEMOLLER: The Gestapo is here today.
Make sure you welcome them.
Hand them a hymnal.
Or maybe they only know how to sing their own songs now.
Indeed, our friends in uniform are fellow worshipers,
just not of the same God.
For years they have been saying now
that this country is infested.
And I finally agree.
But this infestation comes from within,
and not by the Jews who are our spiritual brothers
and to whom we owe an unpayable debt,
but by those who claim a higher office
than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Look at me.
Have the courage to look at me.
Go tell your Führer that he's not bigger than God,
And for daring to claim His throne,
there awaits a punishment beyond his understanding.
[audience clapping]
[dramatic music]
This is not your house!
NIEMOLLER: I know I've been your pastor
for almost 13 years now
and my job is to lead this flock.
But I failed.
Because when the Nazis first came for the socialists,
I didn't speak out because I was not a socialist.
And when they later came for the trade unionists,
I didn't speak out
because I am not a unionist.
And then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out,
not soon enough, because I am not a Jew.
So when they come to knock at my door,
will there be anyone left to speak out for me?
NEIMOLLER: It was reckless of you to come.
But nevertheless, I'm grateful you did.
-Everything is different now.
After what they call Kristallnacht.
-I still need you outside.
I think today
this was my last sermon.
ELSE: But you finally said it in public.
What we've been discussing at home.
And you said it to their wicked faces.
I thought it was brave, and beautiful.
[cars approach]
[somber music]
-It's all good.
-We're just going to say goodbye to Daddy
for a little while.
-Yes.
-Listen, Jan, I'm very sorry, but I have to go away.
-You don't. Stay. I want you to stay.
-I want to stay too.
My boy. My son.
My precious son.
-Please. Papa, Papa, stay.
- Look... - Please.
-I'm going to stay, but here.
Right here.
Always.
[banging on door]
JAN: Please.
[suspenseful music]
It is me whom you seek. Leave the rest alone.
HOBLE: We shall take and leave whomever and whatever we like.
-You already stole this country.
What else do you want?
-This is not your house.
Put the pastor in the car.
- Martin. - No! no!
no, no.
EBERHARD: Dietrich.
-No.
-Once you finished your search, burn it all.
EBERHARD: No! No. no.
EBERHARD: Leave him be!
ELSE: No!
EBERHARD: Stop.
[footsteps]
PAULA: It's just the way my mother made Spätzle-Fass.
CHRISTEL: It isn't fair. You have to
start writing your recipes down.
Tell her, my love.
-It's true.
Dietrich. What happened?
PAULA: Hey, hey.
PAULA: Dietrich. Hey, are you alright?
Are you alright?
Hey! Hey!
Christel, help him.
PAULA: Hans, what does it say?
HANS: They're under house arrest.
KARL: Paula, we need more gauze, please.
They turned our house into a prison.
-They've turned the entire country into a prison, Father.
-We have word from Finkenwalde.
The seminary was destroyed.
And the students who wouldn't acquiesce
were forced into uniforms.
Either military or for the camps.
-Dietrich will be devastated.
-He's lucky to be alive.
If he hadn't gone to Berlin,
they might have executed him
in front of his students for sport.
EBERHARD: Dietrich.
Finkenwalde is gone.
DIETRICH: Everything I thought God called me to pursue...
burnt to ash.
-Life is loss.
And building again.
Everything in the world
has been built on top of what came before.
DIETRICH: The disciples all scattered
after Jesus was arrested.
I never understood why, until now.
-The disciples scattered on Friday, yes.
But by Sunday,
they were on their way to changing the world.
DIETRICH: Hans. My father said you had something to discuss.
I'm ready to listen.
HANS: As a mole inside the Abwehr.
I have it on absolute authority
that the Jews have been targeted for total extinction.
The Nazis have set up concentration camps,
forcing them to die from disease,
hunger and hard labor.
Dachau,
Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Ravensbrück.
Bishop Niemöller is in a concentration camp
just like these,
at Sachsenhausen.
The Abwehr is military intelligence
for the defense department.
While Hitler has created the Gestapo
to be his own plaything,
The Abwehr works independently of the Führer.
The Nazis plan to imprison or front-line every pastor
that won't bow the knee to Hitler.
DIETRICH: Yeah, tell me there's something we can do.
HANS: There is.
Dietrich, I need you to understand
that your life will not be the same
after I speak these words.
- Even if you don't join us. DIETRICH: Yes. Speak.
HANS: This is not like when the Resistance met in your house
and you offered theology instead of action.
-“You Christians only know how to keep your hands clean.”
I hated hearing it then, and I hate remembering it now.
HANS: This will take dirty hands.
-That's all I have left to offer.
-Gentlemen,
we have devised a plot to assassinate the Führer.
EBERHARD: Hans,
you're talking to pastors, not killers.
Dietrich? Tell him.
-Here I am, Hans.
Send me.
EBERHARD: Dietrich, you're an avowed pacifist.
-And David was a shepherd when he slew Goliath.
-“The will of God is that men should defeat
their enemies by loving them.”
HANS: Who wrote that empty promise?
DIETRICH: I did.
And I was right.
Before Hitler.
Is Hitler the first evil ruler since scripture was written?
DIETRICH: No.
But he's the first one I can stop.
What do you require of me?
EBERHARD: Will God forgive us if we do this?
-Will He forgive us if we don't?
-In order to destroy the Führer,
you must first swear allegiance...
to the Führer.
I've spent two years ingratiating myself
with the Abwehr.
HANS: If you want to help, this is our last angle to play.
Otherwise, you sit home in forced silence,
or get sent to the front to fight for him
instead of against him.
-I guess sometimes the only way to defeat the father of lies
is to lie better than he does.
[dramatic music]
BAMLER: Do you love the Judensau more than the Germans?
It is not a difficult question.
One loves the Jews or one loves the Fatherland.
HANS: The Fatherland.
BAMLER: I'm more interested in the answer
of your new recruit here
who has been parading with Niemöller
for the Confessing Church.
-I'm here to confess.
I didn't see what the rest of the country saw.
-And what is that, Herr Bonhoeffer?
-That the time had come for Germany to rise
and for the rest of the world to bow down.
- Heil Hitler. - Heil Hitler.
-The only problem is, Herr Bonhoeffer.
I don't believe you.
So you must do me one little favor
in order that I don't order your immediate execution.
-Your favor is my honor.
BAMLER: Neutral Switzerland is becoming a problem.
[Speaking in German]
And since they are a neighbor,
this is the worst problem of all.
I need you to take seven Juden into Switzerland
and guarantee that they deliver one message.
The Führer's message.
[Speaking in German]
-“Each prisoner will tell the Swiss officials
that they've been treated as guests
by the National Socialists.
Never felt safer, more protected...”
HANS: 'To ensure the Swiss understand
the Germans have built humanitarian camps
to guarantee the madness of war
shall not touch the Jewish people
from now or going forward.'
It was so insane, I had to memorize every line.
Words aren't words anymore, Dietrich.
They're nooses, bullets and knives.
My name is Hans,
and this is my brother-in-law, Dietrich.
DIETRICH: I am a pastor.
I love the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
-All of whom would be in the gas chambers
if it were up to Christians like you.
-If you were speaking to many members of my broken church,
you would be right, but you are not.
HANS: When you cross the border, you're free.
MOSES: Free?
What is free?
DIETRICH: What is your name?
MOSES: You animals, you stole my name.
Crossed it out with ink under my skin.
All that's left of my name is a sound in my head.
-Please, tell me your name.
I am Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
That's my name.
That's who I am.
Who are you?
-Kiefer is my father's name.
My mother named me Moses.
- It's an honor to meet you, Moses.
HANS: We've brought you here so you
can tell the Swiss the truth
about what is being perpetrated by Hitler.
DIETRICH: We have church contacts in Geneva
who will help upon your arrival in the city.
MOSES: What if I don't believe you?
DIETRICH: Neither would I.
But we only need you to believe it long enough, Moses...
to see it.
HANS: By the decree of the Führer,
in agreement with President Etter.
-Yes. We have been expecting you.
-These are free men, to be welcomed in Switzerland.
That's the agreement we have.
-Is it?
DIETRICH: We were told they would be
taken by car to Geneva,
where they can wash and rest.
-We are glad to help our neighbor.
But, Jews?
Is that really the best you can offer us?
-We can offer invasion if you prefer.
The French welcomed that without a second debate.
DIETRICH: Hans, back of the truck. The white box. Now.
SWISS GUARD: You Germans think you own the world,
but you can do nothing against a neutral country
without drawing in England, and even the United States.
SWISS GUARD: Out.
SWISS GUARD: Seven Jews.
I guess that amounts to 100,000 marks.
-So the Swiss make money
on more than chocolate and watches.
Seems being neutral can be very lucrative.
-Now... Switzerland welcomes the Jews.
-Does anyone have a drink? We should toast this moment.
-Why not?
[animal noises]
HANS: Dietrich, where did you get the money?
-Our friends in Sweden and Ireland.
We are not totally alone, Hans.
Hans...
-Today, we saved seven lives.
-Millions more to be saved.
-But seven is a beautiful start.
GESTAPO: Do not move. All of you.
[Speaking in German]
Keep still. Put your arms up.
Hands up!
KNOBLAUCH: Herr Bonhoeffer, you will put your hands up.
BEST: Dietrich, please raise your arms.
-I'm tired of lifting my arms for Hitler and his believers.
If he wants to shoot me. He can.
KOKORIN: He wants to shoot us all. Don't give him permission.
-The war's over. The war is over.
You heard the planes.
You hid from the bombs.
Just like us.
We are all Germans.
KNOBLAUCH: Please don't.
I forgive you.
No matter what you do.
How dare you. Forgive me?
How do you dare? You son of a bitch!
DIETRICH: Why am I being sent away
at the decisive moment?
-Because you're worth more alive
in America than dead in Germany.
-We need your charisma in a pulpit in America,
not lighting a fuze in Berlin.
And you will return. Dietrich.
-You're asking me to run when I'm needed here the most.
HANS: Dietrich,the Nazis are tracing the money
we used in Switzerland.
It's only a matter of time until
they find your fingerprints.
DIETRICH: You know this to be true?
-The Abwehr is lit up with the search.
They don't know who they're looking for yet, but they will.
-This is your last chance, son.
Take it.
PAULA: I beg you, Dietrich. I beg you, please.
-You will travel as Elgin Beckenbauer.
HANS: Hitler would be coming to view the armory
at Zeughaus,
and we've arranged for Rudy to be his guide.
You will have a glass vial in each coat pocket.
Once you break them,
the fuze is lit and you will have ten minutes
until detonation.
This is a trigger that cannot be unpulled.
Not just for Rudy,
but for all of us in the Resistance.
RUDY: I'm honored to be chosen.
If I could die twice for my country, I would.
-I won't stop speaking until the world knows
why we've done what we had to do.
TRESCKOW: Pastor Bonhoeffer, would you pray?
DIETRICH: God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Thank you for your faithful servant,
Rudolf-Christopher.
And though what we are about to embark upon
feels utterly alien,
it also feels precisely what you have called us to do.
So guide our hands.
Guide our trembling hands.
DIETRICH: Frank.
FRANK: Finally got you back home.
Shall we drop the suitcase
and take this town like it needs to be taken?
-I need to make a stop first.
And I need your full attention.
-Come.
-Go on now.
I didn't come to hear you rehearse
how to shuffle papers.
-Nine years ago,
I learned in this very building
that faith without action
is no faith at all.
[suspenseful music]
DIETRICH: And I've returned
to tell you, and anyone who will listen,
that the time to rescue the Jews of Europe,
and to end the madness of a man
who has dared to call himself a god,
is now.
But how?
How can we act when we face
this kind of terror,
this kind of despair?
Because all our Savior ever asked of Peter was...
“follow Me.”
Two words.
But where does Christ bid us follow?
And can we set aside all our plans
and do as He says?
Because when Christ calls a man, He bids him,
“Come and die.”
RUDY: More than a thousand Vickers machine guns
captured from France.
Every Hotchkiss M that Belgium surrendered.
And countless T-26 tanks from the fall of Kharkov.
These are your spoils from more than a dozen countries
brought to their knees by your strength alone.
-Europe is burning.
In Kiev, Nazi killing squads shot dead.
33,000 Jews in two days.
That's how far the devil has gone.
But...
how far have you gone?
-Most courage is wasted,
Herr Gersdorff.
Don't you agree?
-All the way to the cross?
Because beyond the cross is the resurrected life.
And that's the place to which He calls each of us
since before the beginning of time.
So...
Will you follow me?
[music intensifies]
Will you follow Him...
all the way to the cross?
REV POWELL: All the way to the cross. Right, Dietrich?
-Yes, sir. Yes.
-Only problem,
Your cross isn't in America yet.
It's in Germany.
I too remember understanding what I was preaching
only the moment the words left my mouth.
DIETRICH: Reverend, I'm not running away.
I'm running towards.
-That's fair enough.
Towards what?
And where...
where is your finish line?
[phone rings]
HANS: Dietrich? DIETRICH: Is this a clear line?
-The only one left.
-Hans...
I'm coming home.
-You can't. I thought we decided--
-God didn't agree and neither do I.
Is it done?
-No.
No. The fuze was lit,
but Hitler sensed something.
He was gone before the work could be finished.
-Gersdorff? -Is alive.
Somehow. A miracle.
But we need help from England. From Churchill.
And there's no safe means of reaching him.
-Have you asked for help? HANS: Yes.
Another bomb, two if necessary.
But our communications are down.
He may be standing by, ready to light our fuze,
but there is no way of knowing.
-Now, listen, my ship stops in London first.
I know Bishop Bell would help me.
-I don't want you coming home to be arrested or worse.
-I want to.
Hans...
I'm coming home.
-London is crawling with Nazi spies.
They're watching everywhere.
-Good.
I like getting away.
[dramatic music]
BRIT: Wait here.
-Why write what no one reads?
BISHOP BELL: Your books have been read
more than you know, my friend.
DIETRICH: So, please tell me England will listen.
-He cannot provide the bomb you request.
-Cannot or will not.
-Churchill sees Germany as a whole.
Says he can't afford
to see the small threads in the tapestry
when the whole cloth is Nazi brown.
-There is gold amidst the dark, my friend.
We cannot be forgotten or burned with the rest.
-I gave it everything,
reputation included.
He's afraid that a bomb traced to England would mean
invasion or worse.
DIETRICH: Invasion? Invasion?
My country was invaded from within!
Does Churchill know what that feels like?
And please don't tell me you agree with him.
-Of course not.
I bent his ear and his heart till breaking.
Nothing.
God doesn't always give answers, my friend.
But He always gives Himself.
And you are here. You are safe.
-Oh, my safety is a prison.
I'll return to Berlin
unarmed but full-hearted.
-Now, look, are you sure you won't stay?
Your voice could be louder than loud from our pulpits.
-I've learned, finally, Bishop,
that people don't hear what is shouted from the pulpit
as much as they hear what is whispered in the street.
-My prayers go with you, my son.
-Then pray what I pray.
For the defeat of Germany.
HANS: You shouldn't have come home.
-I had to.
-To tell me Churchill has turned his back?
You could have done that from London
and then gone and lived a life.
-It isn't over yet, my friend.
-What are we going to do, Dietrich?
England was our last chance.
And don't say pray.
GESTAPO: Faster now. Moving on into the bus.
-Straight lines. -Moving all the way in.
- Faster now! - Moving all the way in.
DIETRICH: No, no, please.
[Speaking in German]
GESTAPO: We have 13 bodies to fit.
DR. RASCHER: What do you think, Herr Bonhoeffer?
Why this traveling circus?
-And the Allies are getting closer.
Perhaps they want some prisoners alive to barter with.
-You've been praying for a rescue.
I hear you in the middle of the night.
What if your God fails you this one last time?
[speaking in German]
KNOBLAUCH: Take the Bible.
-Thank you.
KNOBLAUCH: There will be absolute silence.
No talking.
[car door slams shut]
[engine revs]
PAULA: No. No. No.
[speaking in German]
-Here I am.
HOBLE: Halt!
What has become of the church
when a pastor has turned into an assassin?
DIETRICH: If a driver were running over children,
would it not be everyone's responsibility to stop it?
PUNDER: Dietrich?
-What is it, friend?
-Knoblauch wanted to warn.
It happens at dawn.
He asked to see you.
He said it has to be now.
KNOBLAUCH: We only have a few moments, but I can help you.
You don't have to end this way.
I have a spare uniform, nearly your size.
I have food coupons and money.
We walk out together after sunset.
Just two guards headed into the village.
Tonight.
It is not too late.
There's an old railway overgrown,
where a car won't even be heard.
-I can't escape.
-What? Why? You deserve to.
-We all deserve to.
But I wouldn't make it out of Germany.
My family would be killed.
You and your family.
Listen, every act of courage carries a cost.
I made my choice 12 years ago,
long before I knew what it would mean,
and I've been chased ever since.
But now...
I'm ready to meet my destiny.
[somber music]
DIETRICH: Once upon a time, I was a pastor.
KOKORIN: Will you be our pastor today?
- I will.
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed,
took bread,
and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said,
“This...
is my body,
which is broken...”
This is the body...
...for you.
For our Lord Jesus Christ.
'Do this for the remembrance of me.'
BEST: We can't allow...
-It is not our table.
It is the Lord's,
And He has invited us all.
Lift your head.
This is the body of our Lord.
'This is my blood, spilled for you.
Do this whenever you drink it
for the remembrance of me.'
[eerie music]
DIETRICH: For me, this is not the end...
but the beginning of life.
GESTAPO: Bonhoeffer, to the gallows.
DIETRICH: You will get these to my mother.
I know you will.
Tell her I couldn't find a strawberry,
but my words did.
[wind blowing]
GESTAPO: Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
for money laundering and your role
in the conspiracy to assassinate the Führer
on July 20th,
you're sentenced to death by hanging.
[Knoblauch cries]
DIETRICH: “Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed...
are the pure in heart,
For they shall see...
God.”
[Bonhoeffer hangs]