A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR/WRITER AND PRODUCER

Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom is a dramatic representation of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. What does "dramatic representation" mean? For us it means that, unlike the format for a biographical documentary, we're telling you about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. That story required us to make many choices about what we included and left out of the literal facts of Bonhoeffer's life.

Unfortunately for dramatists, life rarely follows the structure of what we all consider a good story. People come and go by the thousands in our lives, many of whom have an obvious impact, others having an impact that is not so obvious. Such a large cast in a drama would be incomprehensible to an audience (and defy even Cecil B. DeMille's abilities).

Unlike a biographical documentary, then, we have consolidated characters and events to tell the essence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's story in a compelling and understandable way. In a sense, you could say that we've had to fictionalize facts (or factualize fiction) to turn his story into a concise drama. The key moments really happened; there's very little here that you won't find in his biographies, though we sometimes had to imagine the details when the information wasn't available. Of more importance, we have endeavored to accurately capture Bonhoeffer's personality, views and spirituality as they were played out against the drama of his times.

You may not agree with all of his decisions. Our production team had numerous lively debates over his conclusions. And it would be folly to think that we at Focus on the Family are trying to communicate a secret agenda via Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We simply believe that the questions he had to ask in his time are questions we must ask in our own.

We strongly encourage you to get to know Dietrich Bonhoeffer beyond this drama. There are many excellent books available by and about him. A few are listed here to help you along. Otherwise, our desire is to share in the life of this remarkable Christian who refused to compromise his faith when all of the forces of his world demanded that he should. May he be an inspiration to us all.

—Paul McCusker and Dave Arnold for Focus on the Family Radio Theatre