Why did Dietrich Bonhoeffer defend Christians of Jewish ancestry?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer defended Christians of Jewish ancestry because he fundamentally rejected the Nazi regime's attempt to impose a racial definition on the church. While Nazi ideology classified individuals as Jewish based on the religion of their grandparents, Bonhoeffer insisted on a nonracial definition of identity within the Christian faith.1

He argued that those who had converted to Christianity were entitled to the same rights and standing as any other member of the church. This stance placed him in direct opposition to the "German Christians," a movement that sought to subordinate church policy to Nazi political initiatives and exclude converted Jews from religious life.12

Beyond his specific defense of Jewish converts, Bonhoeffer’s moral conviction grew into a broader resistance against the persecution of the Jewish people. He famously declared that the church was guilty of failing to speak out when the "blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven," and he eventually took personal action to help Jews escape to neutral Switzerland. His actions were rooted in the ethical imperative to stand against injustice and share in the sufferings of the defenseless.13