Bonhoeffer and von Dohnanyi in Kerr's "A Man Without Breath"

As someone who has taught and written about Christians in Nazi Germany, I have grown to love the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr. I recommend them to my students as a way getting a good sense for what it was like to have lived, and moved, and had your being in that terrible, perplexing world. Kerr, who died last year, wrote marvelously well, and I am saddened that there won’t be any further Gunther stories. I especially like A Man Without Breath (Penguin, 2014), since it matches up nicely with my lectures on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi.

But Kerr’s depiction of von Dohnanyi in this novel is only partially accurate, since the real von Dohnanyi would never have said (esp. in Mar ’43), “But the fact remains that the German Army does not murder prisoners of war” (p. 47). During von Dohnanyi’s employment as a lawyer in the Ministry of Justice (already starting in ’33), he began to prepare a secret set of files on Nazi atrocities. These files were greatly expanded after Sep ’39. While most of those files concerned the criminal actions of Party leaders, some of the reports did in fact address the murders of prisoners of war by members of the German military and special police battalions. Von Dohnanyi had hard evidence that the German Army had in fact committed atrocities, e.g., he was in possession of films of murders and executions carried out in Poland after 1939. These so-called “Zossen Files,” which were discovered by the Gestapo on 22 Sep ’44 in the Abwehr bunker at Zossen, were the key pieces of evidence that the Nazi officials used to incriminate von Dohnanyi and several others in his circle of conspirators, including Bonhoeffer. Moreover, as a conservative Lutheran Christian, von Dohnanyi would never have made such an idealistic statement about human behavior. (A small point re: p. 50: When von Dohnanyi traveled to Smolensk [in late Feb ’43, not on Mar 10 ‘43], he took the night train from Berlin to Rastenburg, and then from there he took a plane the rest of the way. Kerr has von Dohnanyi fly all the way, which, despite the historical inaccuracy, does make for a more interesting, if also fully inventive tale.)

Hans von Dohnanyi

Contrary to what is stated on p. 273, von Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer were not imprisoned by the Gestapo at Prinz Albrechtstrasse on 5 Apr ‘43. While von Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer had been arrested by the Gestapo, they were under the jurisdiction of the German military. Thus, von Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer were imprisoned at the old Tegel Prison, which was one of the military’s interrogation prisons, and those interrogations were always conducted by military officials from the Reich War Court (with Gestapo officials merely observing). Bonhoeffer remained a prisoner at Tegel until the discovery of the Zossen Files ended his period of military confinement. Only after 8 Oct ’44 was he then imprisoned by the Gestapo at Prinz Albrechtstrasse (and afterwards sent to Buchenwald and then to Flossenbuerg, where he was executed).

Kerr states as fact that “Hans von Dohnanyi was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1944; on Hitler’s orders he was executed on or after April 6, 1945, at the same time and place as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Sack” (“Author’s Note,” p. 464). This statement is mostly incorrect. While von Dohnanyi was a prisoner at Sachsenhausen, he was likely executed on April 9, 1945, the same day as Bonhoeffer. However, Bonhoeffer was never imprisoned at Sachsenhausen, nor was he executed there. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned at Tegel, at Prinz Albrechtstrasse, and then at Buchenwald. During the last week of his life, he was sent to the Flossenbuerg concentration camp, where he was executed on April 9, 1945.

These minor historical inaccuracies do not detract from the craftsmanship and dramatic force of Kerr’s excellent novels, but in the interest of accuracy, which I know Kerr sought always to maintain, I share these few corrections here.