word “Christ” for Delp stands above denominational differences. Both Delp and Moltke learned this in the Kreisau Circle, particularly during their time in prison. Christ calls persons toward Himself and one another. The encounter with Christ in prayer and worship is an experience of grace that enables a type of personhood that emerges, wherein one sees oneself as God’s gift, can enjoy the presence of others, but can also, when called upon, willingly suffer for others. For Delp, as for Moltke, the encounter with Christ in prayer inaugurated a new way of being human and the fulfillment of his identity in relation to the other members of the Kreisau Circle.
Final Vows and Trial
The account of Delp’s Final Vows and trial demonstrates that, for Delp, one of the fruits of prayer was a closer identification with the Cross. While the two Mariannes ensured that Delp’s prison writings survived, smuggling out his reflections and letters in his laundry, they also passed valuable information to him in like manner. One of these communications, dated December 8, 1944, gave Delp the news that he would be able to pronounce his final vows as a Jesuit. About an hour after Delp received this news, Franz Tattenbach, SJ arrived and gave the impression to the prison guard that the meeting was informal.153
The final vows had deep meaning for Delp. They were a firm rejection of the efforts of the Gestapo to influence him to leave the Society of Jesus. In a letter written to Tattenbach on December 9, 1944, Delp wrote:
I would like the [vow formula document] kept safe from the bombs. It would be too bad for all concerned if it got lost. I was supposed to write a letter that I was out. This response would be inflammatory [to the Gestapo].154
Delp regarded his pronouncement of final vows as meaning that, no matter what happened to him, he had given his life over into the hands of God, making concrete a theology of trust, obedience, and self-surrender. In light of receiving Final Vows and a closer intimacy with the Cross of Christ, Delp showed that the human person was meant to seek fulfillment, including his or her own but not in the manner the world does. After the encounter with Christ, especially his complete self-giving on the Cross, Delp expressed the desire to remain faithful to and follow Christ to the very end, even though he preferred to avoid suffering and death. That said, if Delp had not recognized his life as God’s gift, giving it for others would have been pointless.
Delp’s pronouncement of Final Vows deepened and underscored his commitment to his Christian and Jesuit identity during his imprisonment, which came to light in his trial and that of the other Kreisau members between January 9 and 11.155 The Kreisau Circle members, who had been in constant but furtive contact with one another while in prison, had coordinated their defense. The common defense of the members was that they had not taken part in any direct activity against the National Socialist government but had rather been discussing constitutional possibilities. They were to be tried by the People’s Court, Volksgerichtshof, established in April 1934.156 Overall, the People’s Court offered the National Socialist regime nearly unlimited scope for the persecution and liquidation of any form of opposition. According to the court, “The case against the accused was that ‘they had together undertaken to change the constitution of the Reich by force, and to deprive the Führer of his constitutional power and thereby, at the same time, to give assistance at home to the enemy power during a war against the Reich.’”157
The presiding judge for the trial was Roland Freisler, known as “Red Roland” because of his tendency to work himself into a state of rage.158 During trials targeting Nazi resistors, Freisler would shriek so loudly that sound engineers told him he was damaging the microphones. As presiding judge, Freisler ensured that all defendants would appear undignified. The defendants would receive brutal treatment at the hands of the Gestapo before the trial. They were poorly fed and had to hold up their pants because their belts and suspenders had been confiscated. Freisler reduced all the other participants in the trial to mere extras: the accused, their court-appointed defense attorneys, the prosecutors, and even his colleagues on the panel. As in the case of Alfred Delp and Helmuth James von Moltke, he berated, vilified, and mocked the conspirators.
Freisler believed that every death sentence he meted out would contribute to National Socialism’s survival. Freisler noted, “It is not a matter of dispensing justice but of destroying the opponents of National Socialism.”159 The lives and dignity of the defendants did not matter to him. A woman who attended the trial of the Kreisau members recalled that, “Roland Freisler’s defendants are the playthings of his intellect. He juggles with people’s lives and provides the unexpected twist, the lighting and color he needs in order to turn something unimportant into an impressive piece of theatre, to present the tragedy that he has already planned.”160
Alfred Delp was the first defendant called to the stand. Freisler began the questioning in a normal tone of voice that may have given the defendant the impression that he would receive a fair trial. Freisler asked how Delp had come to know Moltke and the others. What did he discuss with them? What did he know of the other meetings held by the Kreisau members? What was considered at the Kreisau meetings? Why did the Kreisau meetings, concerned with a future German society, not include a single National Socialist representative? Delp stood calmly and with composure, responding to each question in a low, even tone.
Freisler’s voice, though, gradually began to rise as he pushed further: What were the aims of such meetings? What future German society were you discussing—one that would exist after the defeat of the Nazis? “Defeatism!” Freisler shouted. He screamed that such talk amounted to treason and launched into a tirade against Delp:
You miserable creep, you clerical nobody—who dares to want the life of our beloved Fuhrer taken . . . a rat—that should be stamped on and crushed. Now tell us, what brought you as a priest to abandon the pulpit and get mixed up in German politics with a subversive like Count Moltke and a troublemaker like the Protestant Gerstenmaier? Come on, answer.161
Delp calmly and firmly responded with the following:
I can preach forever, and with whatever skill I have I can work with people and keep setting them straight. But as long as people have to live in a way that is inhuman and lacking in dignity, that is as long as the average person will succumb to circumstances and will neither pray nor think. A fundamental change in the conditions of life is needed.162
In the case of his trial, Delp understood that fidelity to his God-given mission required him to suffer the evil of being imprisoned and mocked. The Nazis’ reign of sin and oppression was absorbed by Delp’s courageous fidelity to his Christian faith.
The following day, it was Moltke’s turn to face Freisler’s interrogation and the continued assault on the Christian faith and the Jesuits. Again, the initial questions were calm. Then, in expected fashion, Freisler began to raise his voice when broaching the issues related to Moltke’s anticipation of a German defeat and his plan for a new German society. Freisler exploded:
All Adolf Hitler’s officials set about their work on the assumption of victory, and that applies just as much to the High Command as anywhere else. I simply won’t listen to that kind of thing—and even were it not the case, it is clearly the duty of every single man for his part to promote confidence in victory.163
Freisler’s final tirade targeted Moltke’s collaboration with Delp and the Society of Jesus:
And who was present [at these meetings]? A Jesuit father! Of all people, a Jesuit father! And a Protestant minister, and three others who were later condemned to death for complicity in the 20 July plot! And not a single National Socialist! No, not one! And the provincial head of the Jesuits, you know him, too! He even came to Kreisau once! A provincial of the Jesuits, one of the highest officials of Germany would not touch a Jesuit with a barge-pole! People who have been excluded from military
