The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned a poem called “Who Am I?” while in a Nazi prison that has had a profound impact on my life. Every so often I reread it and try to imagine the circumstances that surrounded its writing.
Click here if you would like to read an online version of this poem by Bonhoeffer.
It must have been so difficult, knowing how he should act, yet knowing how he truly felt.
I would feel so inauthentic befriending and reaching out to people when inside I wanted to die. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.
Bonhoeffer is an amazing writer. He is able to express himself with such feeling. His book Life Together really challenged me, especially his ideas on being alone.
Bonhoeffer was at Buchenwald concentration camp, I believe, in a cell in the camp’s wall. I’ve been there, and the tour video even mentioned the ‘preacher of Buchenwald’. I didn’t know anything else about him until years later. Amazing story.