JONATHAN Shaw, Head of King’s Ely Senior, hosted History Cafe on February 5th and delivered an excellent talk to students, entitled: ‘Rebels in History: Swimming against the tide’.
Colin Currie, Head of History at King’s Ely Senior, said: “Central to the talk was the juxtaposition of the lives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Otto von Wächter. Both were born into privileged backgrounds in early twentieth century Germany, but chose to follow completely different paths. Wächter enthusiastically greeted the Nazi rise to power, ultimately becoming central to development of the Holocaust in Poland, but Bonhoeffer chose to ‘swim against the tide’ and resist.
“Having left Germany for America in 1939, he returned soon afterwards, as he felt a moral responsibility to live through this difficult period in his country’s history with his fellow Germans, doing what he could to resist it. He was ultimately hanged in April 1945 for his involvement in the ‘20 July Plot’ plot to assassinate Hitler.
“Mr Shaw then posed some pertinent questions which made us think about the difficulties one faces in speaking out against injustice, but also how important it is that brave people do so.
“History Cafe will return again after half term on 4th March with Dr Jones as our speaker.”