that reveals the nature of God, and the disciple receives the strength to live this self-oblation seriously and consciously.
In the mid-afternoon of January 11, 1945, after a two-day trial, the German People’s Court in Berlin, Germany, convicted Alfred Delp to death for high treason against the Third Reich.176 According to the verdict, Delp was convicted, along with Helmuth James von Moltke, of being one of the foremost conspirators in the Kreisau Circle, an anti-National Socialist group. The court sentenced Delp and Moltke of weakening Germany’s defense through their clandestine meetings, discussions, and creation of plans to seize power in a post-National Socialist Germany.177 Their activities, the court claimed, fostered a defeatist mentality that aided the enemies of Germany. As a consequence, Delp and Moltke were judged to be accomplices of Germany’s enemies. In particular, Moltke was convicted of being the lead conspirator, and Delp was convicted of devising plans for a state that abolished private property through the implementation of Catholic social teaching.178
While Delp was awaiting execution,179 he wrote two more reflections on the Lord’s Prayer and the Holy Spirit.180 After composing these two prison meditations, Delp continued to engage in writing letters to friends, family, and Jesuit brethren. Delp’s letter written to Franz von Tattenbach on January 18, 1945, offered a glimpse of his inner peace despite suffering from anxiety:
I’m still alive . . . . An interior strength allows me more and more hope and confidence. As I sit here waiting for my execution, though, I certainly do not want to trivialize the situation and go into nervous breakdowns. The time for breakdowns is definitely past (in Plötzensee, they are only physiological and, therefore, do not count). I live in great peace and freedom . . . . Perhaps the last salutary humiliation involves accepting life as a grace. Maybe the entire thing (awaiting execution) concerns the meaning of waiting, and yet, the acceptable time will come. Only God knows. I cast my entire existence on Him.181
Despite the hostile conditions that confronted him, Delp continued to encounter a greater peace, and a vital aspect of that peace was his friendship with Moltke.
On January 23, 1945, Delp’s friend and companion, Helmuth James von Moltke, was hanged in Plötzensee Prison; prior to his execution, Moltke wrote letters to his Freya and his friend Delp. Writing to Freya, Moltke revealed the profound impact Delp had had on him by acknowledging humorously that he was dying “as a martyr for St. Ignatius of Loyola.”182 In his letter to Delp, Moltke beautifully expressed the gift of friendship that emerged between them while in prison:
Dear Friend,
In order to clarify a point, I want to say the following: the Lord has led us here marvelously. He also showed us in the last couple of months in human relationships the places that he could prepare and make favorable twists and turns. He showed with various signs that he is with us . . . . And he can make good for us at the gallows in Plötzensee, as in the freedom [we experienced] in Kreisau or elsewhere . . . One thing, however, is most certain, we must without ceasing dare to pray . . . . Who can know that to which all this is necessary in the plan of the Lord. For us only one thing is valid: to commit ourselves joyfully in his guidance, even if we must go into the dark and are not able to see the path before us.183
In these two notes, Moltke revealed the mutual bond between Delp and him that beckoned forth the good in each other. Moltke saw both Delp and him as God’s gift to each other, in which they were able to enjoy the presence of each other, and, under Divine Providence, were willing to witness the Gospel under harsh conditions. Their friendship, in this case, was a grace, enabling the two to participate in God’s redemptive work. Moltke’s “thank you” to Delp became a sort of eucharist, in which he communicated an appreciation to God for Delp’s presence.
Moltke’s death led Delp into an intensification of anguish. After the execution of Moltke, on the same day, Delp poured out his soul to Oestreicher:
Today is a tough day. Now all my friends and companions are dead. I am the only one left, the only one in chains. I do not know what is the reason behind it; however I do not expect anything good. Perhaps it is a necessary bridge to a stronghold? I am exhausted with sadness and terror. Humanly, it would be easier to be dragged [to the gallows with my friends] . . . . More than ever my life stands absolutely on God. For me, every exertion of reason is gone. I pray and trust and surrender and abandon myself to the Lord.184
In a letter to Marianne Hapig and Marianne Pünder, dated January 24, 1945, Delp wrote:
Good people, this was a tough week. I believe the hardest of all . . . Sometimes you would like to switch off [the anxiety] for an hour, but that is not just possible. In addition, Buchholz185 has corrupted my imagination. In the midst of the anguish over my friends’ death, he told me exactly what happens when one is hanged. I think it would have been sufficient for me to experience it on the spot. Well at least, I know it now . . . . Next week, the First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart and a Marian feast are on the same day. Please pray.186
In these letters, Delp’s anxiety manifests itself as a terror (Schreck) which isolates and leaves him restless and in great perplexity. Despite his apparent extended intensification of his own “Gethsemane,” Delp did not abandon his faith in God. In fact, his trust in God increased in the midst of his anguish. Though his gift of himself to God did not lessen his fear, Delp’s suffering became part of his witness against the evil of his time; his suffering was a participation in Christ’s redemptive work. Even the terror of the Nazis can be met with faith, hope, and love.
In Delp’s last letter to his fellow Jesuits, he wrote:
Dear Brethren,
The actual reason for my condemnation was that I happened to be and chose to remain a Jesuit. There was nothing to show that I had any connection with the attempt on Hitler’s life, so I was acquitted on that count. The rest of the accusations were far less serious and more factual. There was one underlying theme—a Jesuit is a priori an enemy and betrayer of the Reich. So, the whole proceedings turned into a sort of comedy developing a theme. It was not justice—it was simply the carrying out of the determination to destroy. May God shield you all . . . and I will do my best to catch up, on the other side, with all that I have left undone here on earth. Toward noon, I will celebrate Mass once more and then in God’s name take the road under His providence and guidance.187
Delp’s last correspondence was a letter to Marianne Hapig and Marianne Pünder written on January 30, 1945; he wrote only four words, “Pray and have faith.”188 The letter was written on a prison order form. On February 2, the day of the Feast of the Purification, Alfred Delp was hanged at Plötzensee Prison. His last words to the chaplain were “in half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.”189 No official reason was given for the three-week delay in Delp’s execution. On February 10, Father Tattenbach, and the secretary of St. Georg’s Parish, Luise Oestreicher, went to Berlin from Munich with the hopes of retrieving Delp’s personal belongings and receiving his ashes. They were able to retrieve his clothes in a suitcase, but there were no ashes to be received. On February 15, 1945, the official notice of Delp’s death was sent to his mother, Maria Delp.190 It read, “The clergyman Alfred Delp was sentenced to death by the People’s Court of the German Reich. The sentence was carried out on February 2, 1945. The publication of a death notice is forbidden.”191 Maria Delp kept the suitcase with her son’s clothes under her bed until her death in 1968.
Conclusion
Alfred Delp’s martyrdom reveals a commitment and an experience that were very personal. At the center of Delp’s intense experience is his faith and love for a universal truth embodied in the person of Christ. His journey was not an ascent toward a utopia but a being led by Christ’s love into the darkness of the human condition. For
