In hindsight, it seems that the position of Christian churches and individuals toward the Nazi regime ought to have been clear; in practice, it was a muddle. Afraid of the Nazi government's power and ignorant of its worst excesses, both Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany, as well as—notoriously—the Pope himself, adopted conciliatory attitudes toward Hitler and the Third Reich or simply turned their backs on the secular world. Many individual Christians, however, reacted differently. This volume presents the deeds and writings of both well-known and lesser-known resisters; it includes Kidder's (theology, Ecumenical Theological Seminary; Making Confession, Hearing Confession) translations of their surviving writings as well as discussions of their lives and heroic deaths. VERDICT A you-are-there vividness illuminates the striking bravery of the few in a grim period of world history. Fascinating, gripping reading for church groups, historians, and other interested readers.
