In 1939 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (see Thought for the Day) joined a secret group of high-ranking military officers based in the Abwehr, or German Military Intelligence Office, who wanted to overthrow the National Socialist regime by killing Hitler. Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 after money used to help Jews escape to Switzerland was traced to him. He was charged with conspiracy and imprisoned in Berlin for a year and a half.
Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at dawn on April 9, 1945 just three weeks before the liberation of Berlin and one month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The manner of execution was, like other executions associated with the July 20 plot, so brutal and graphic that even Wehrmacht soldiers were loathe to watch.
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