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Original Caption: "Two Wasps take the controls of the Flying Fortress at Buckingham Field, near Fort Myers, Florida. Mrs.
Dawn Rochow is the pilot and Mrs. Frances Green Kari her co-pilot for this flight."

Mrs Rochow passed away at the age of 100, on July 19 2017. Mrs Kari died at age 73, on May 17, 1994 in Salt Lake City,
Utah.

Both woman married after the war and had plenty of children and grandchildren.

 
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Two days after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany on January 30th, 1933, Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, delivered a radio address that was starkly different in its tone to those given by the majority of church leaders at the time…

Whereas most of his religious counterparts used theirs to celebrate Hitler's ascendancy, Bonhoeffer utilized his own to warn his compatriots against supporting the man he called, "der Irreführer" – "the Misleader" – whom, he foresaw so incredibly accurately, would soon use his elected powers to "eradicate Germany's democracy."

As his prophecy started turning into reality, he decided to leave Germany, first for London, where he transformed a parish into a safe haven for Jewish refugees, and then, for New York City, where he intended to teach theology.

Bonhoeffer didn't stay in New York for long, though, for, only two weeks after his arrival in June 1939, he resolved that he had to go back to his country, in order to speak out against the "great and unnecessary conflict" he feared the Nazis were planning to instigate.

So as to avoid being drafted into the Wehrmacht when his fears were realized in September of the same year, he pre-emptively joined the clandestine world of the Abwehr – military intelligence – where, rather than work in support of the German war effort, he supported its commander-in-chief – Admiral Wilhelm Canaris – to resist Hitler's regime.

To that end, he risked his life not only by gathering and transmitting intelligence vital to the Allied cause, but also, by helping Jewish families escape to Switzerland when he discovered the true horrors of the Holocaust.

Arrested and charged with "conspiring to rescue Jews" in the Spring of 1943, initially, he was confined to a prison in Berlin, only then to be transferred to the living hell of Buchenwald, when, following the 1944 "Valkyrie" assassination plot against Hitler, he was denounced and implicated in the ill-fated attempt.

Then sent to the notorious concentration camp at Flossenbürg, Bavaria, it was there, where, following a brief show trial held at the dictator's behest, he was sentenced to death by the infamous SS Judge – Sturmbannführer Otto Thorbeck – and murdered by hanging on this day, just four weeks before Germany's surrender in 1945.

Prior to being taken to the gallows, his SS guards allowed him to say one final goodbye to his fellow inmate and friend – British Army Captain, Sigismund Best.

When Captain Best later recalled his "emotional farewell with Dietrich", he said:

"I thanked him for the joy he brought us, and I expressed my deep gratitude for the mere fact he was alive."

Recounting what Bonhoeffer's final words to him were, Captain Best expressed:

"Dietrich said, when Jesus calls a man, he bids him, 'Come and die.' He then looked me in the eye, and said, 'Das ist das ende. Für mich, der anfang des lebens' – This is the end. For me, the beginning of life."
 
An interesting and brave man. His last words are similar to what Jesus said on the Cross "It is finished." Reinhard Gehlen was another interesting character. When I worked at Burr-Brown in the '80s to '90s, A woman there was his niece.
 
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I wish I had known about this man sooner.
When I read about heroes like him it reminds me that however pervasive evil can be, not all are corrupted. I try to keep that in mind when reading about Russia-Ukraine war and the atrocities committed there.
 

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