T. Schruck Bonifer was born on February 6, 1906.

He was martyred two months and three days into his 39th year.

He was martyred on April 9th, 1945 as a direct order by Hitler himself while he was in a concentration

camp. In between, Dietrich Bonifer was a Lutheran theologian, a pastor, and an author.

He was born into an academic family.

His father was a MD and PhD and taught in medicine and psychology at the University of Berlin.

This was a family also that loved music.

They had a large family parlor and there's often stories Dietrich would tell later of the family writing oratorios in honor of their

parents birthdays or anniversaries and the whole family would gather together to perform.

Bonifur very early on was destined for a life of academics and a career

in academics so as a young man he goes off to university and as he was 20 going

on 21 he received what would be his first doctorate. Following that he went to

Barcelona and served for a year or so as a youth pastor. This was mostly to Germans

who were there in Barcelona for government work or through industry and he did some

preaching there and youth ministry there. He goes back to Berlin, gets a second doctorate, writes

a very philosophical treatise called Act and Being and receives an appointment, qualifies

as a professor at Berlin.

He convinces his supervisors that it would be good for him to come to America and study theological developments in America.

So in 1930 he comes to New York City and he ends up at Union Theological Seminary

and when he sees the theological developments there he does not like them.

He sees liberalism, he sees that there is nothing to preach.

He visits these big pulpit, he visits Harry Emerson Fosdix's Church in New York City,

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