Bonhoeffer stage play

Recently, saw a stage event at Actors Co-op on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was part of the resistance to Nazi within Germany. He was hanged to death in April 1945 just as the "1000 Year Reich" was collapsing. What is notible about Bonhoeffer was that he started out as a pacifist. His writings on theology and the Christian life are often quoted in sermons and by contemporary religious writers.

A friend who also saw the show sent me some quotes from Bonhoeffer...

A Poem from Prison: "Who Am I?"
 
'Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell's confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warden freely and friendly and clearly, as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me I would bear the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which others tell me, or am I only what I know of myself, restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness, trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation, tossing in expectation of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is it something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine.'

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Regarding the issue of how he moved from pacifism to actively plotting to assasinate Hitler, my friend sent this:

His participation in the murder plot obviously conflicts with Bonhoeffer's position as a pacifist. His sister-in-law, Emmi Bonhoeffer, cited his reasoning. He told her: "If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."

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I've certainly noticed some within the Christian community are pacifists and I understand a reluctance to go to war and to use violence but there is a difference between restraint and abdicating responsibility. We may differ on when the use of forces is necessary but an absolutist position against the use of force doesn't make sense to m.

I wonder how pacifists respond to the thoughts and actions of Bonhoeffer?

I think there is quote attributed to Martin Luther King, if your opponent has a conscience, resist like Ganhdi but if they have no conscience resist like Bonhoeffer.