“First They Came” (1946) is a poetic saying by Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor, about his experience of living in Germany under Hitler. He and others have quoted different versions of it. Here is one of them:
“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist“Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist“Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist“Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew“Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me”
Or, as Angela Davis put it:
“If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night.”
Nelson Mandela:
“Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.”
In the US “First They Came” is well known especially to Jews and also to protesters who opposed Jim Crow in the 1960s and Trump in the 2010s.
“Never again” is another saying from the Holocaust, but it is not as useful. It offends Trump supporters, as if “Never Again” means never again say “Never Again”. Also, unlike the Niemoller saying, it does not get at the creeping nature of evil and how it feeds on hatred, division and complicity.
In 1933 Hitler opened Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp in constant service. Hitler used it at first to round up and detain communists. He said they were a threat to the nation.
Niemoller at the time was an anti-communist and a right-wing supporter of Hitler. As a Christian minister he did not think it was his business to speak out:
“The communists, we [Protestant pastors] still let that happen calmly; and the trade unions, we also let that happen; and we even let the Social Democrats happen. All of that was not our affair.
“The Church did not concern itself with politics at all at that time, and it shouldn’t have anything do with them either. In the Confessing Church we didn’t want to represent any political resistance per se, but we wanted to determine for the Church that that was not right, and that it should not become right in the Church ….”
They only spoke up when Hitler came for Christian ministers of Jewish descent.
Then in 1937 they came for him, putting him first in Sachsenhausen and then in Dachau – the very place Hitler opened without any protest from him. Because it was “just communists”. He became a victim of his own complicity with evil. And then it got even worse:
In 1941 Hitler began using his concentration camps to kill millions and millions of people, especially Jews.
In 1945 Niemoller was freed when the armies of four nations overthrew Hitler. Niemoller was one of the lucky ones: Anne Frank had died just two months before.
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Hitler
- The Holocaust
- concentration camp
- Donald Trump
- Jim Crow
- Angela Davis
- Nelson Mandela
- Anne Frank
- living under autocracy:
- Do Brown lives matter?
552
I remember reading a quote about “Those we don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it.” I am paraphrasing, It’s my honest opinion that this country didn’t learn it’s history and are repeating it. Martin Niemoller’s First They Came poem is just as relevant today as it was when he first wrote it. Taking our democracy for granted and becoming lazy and apathetic is very dangerous. We are slowly slipping into a authoritarian government.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The Evangelicals today that support Trump and his evil regime that are the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ who they profess to base the tenets of their faith, are similar to Niemoeller a Protestant clergyman. Who later ended up getting put in a concentration camp. This is probably what will have to happen to them for pledging allegiance to this evil administration.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Being a so called holy man of God and being complicit in evil Niemoller got his just deserts. So shall it be with so called Religious Right, hypocrites getting their comeuppance.
LikeLike
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-biography
LikeLike
I will never understand these so-called Christians who profess to ‘love’ Jesus but refuse to follow his golden rule.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Niemoller at the time was an anti-communist and a right-wing supporter of Hitler.”
Given these facts, what would have been the basis for his “speaking out”?
His lament is phony from start to end.
His nonsense should be updated to today. It might go something like this:
“First they came for the Taliban
And I did not speak out
Because I figured they were involved with 9/11 in some obscure manner
“Then they came for Saddam Hussein
And I did not speak out
Because, well, he was an Arab, lord knows what they get up to
“Then they came for Julian Assange
And I did not speak out
Because I can’t relate to a pasty white guy who won’t keep secrets
“Then they came for Chelsea Manning
And I did not speak out
Because I was too distracted by her 5 o’clock shadow to pay attention to more substantial matter
“Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me”
LikeLike
Grojo, a little problem is that English has lost the verb swigian, while the West Germanic languages on the other side of the North Sea still have it (Swije-Zwijgen-Schwiegen) and Niemöller used it. Useful verb.It means not saying something, especially when that is remarkable.
A much greater problem is that the US Holocaust Museum is telling lies. They did not come first for the Socialists, the Nazis got the Communists first, and nobody who had survived Dachau, knowing that a quarter of a million folks had been cremated there, would have made that mistake EVER. This is propaganda, the voting and tax paying cattle could NOT be taught that the German communists were the first victims. Welcome to the truth taught in AmeriKKKa. Niemöller usually just got through the victim groups in chronological order, at least to the degree somebody who was there would, he would never go as far as the Amerikkkanazis of the US .
Furthermore, Niemöller really did tell the story, starting with the communists and ending with “me”, but went by different groups of victims on different occasions, but typically in a much, much more prosaic way. That poem thing seems to be no quote at all, but a secularized paraphrase, based on what he told.
“Given these facts, what would have been the basis for his “speaking out”?
His lament is phony from start to end.”
He was a Christian minster, duh, and these words were true to him.
(Matthew 25:40-45 King James Version (KJV))
“40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”
So Niemöller had not just failed to protest against the treatment of Jesus the Communist, he had supported the people doing that to Jesus HIMSELF. So, did Jesus still die for Martin Niemöller???
Is that hard to understand? Has the Yankee prosperity gospel replaced christianity to that degree, that you do not understand that a true Bible believing Christian believes that to suffer a fellow human being to suffer is signing your own damnation? That is the true Niemöller.
Granted message of the secular poem version, stand up for the oppressed minorities, so they wont finish them off and turn you in an oppressed minority, may be greater wisdom, rooted in self interest, but Niemöller’s story is one about failing to see the hurting Jesus in the atheism supporting communists.
LikeLike
How did I manage to missspell Roman Catholics as Amerikkanazis? Sorry. No offense meant to either Roman Catholics or the entities misinforming the people of the United States of America ( I Love The Full Name Of The Country), well, I do think the entities are deserving the full injustice the beautiful country with the lovable name can come up with, but not on account of religious views.
LikeLike
@ teddy1975
“How did I manage to missspell Roman Catholics as Amerikkanazis?”
What?? Are you trying to imply that anti-communism in the U.S. is only a Catholic thing? And do you not know that Catholics here were persecuted by the KKK?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“He was a Christian minster, duh, and these words were true to him.”
Duh, he was a pro-Nazi Christian minister and fully on board with Hitler’s extermination of communists and others. His late rediscovery of his Christian dogma is the very thing I find phony about his lament. People make choices and should live with the negative consequences without whining as he does at the end of his lament. No one to speak for you, so what?
LikeLiked by 1 person
China Daily (English language State media distributed overseas) practically copied this text and wrote a little ditty trying to get Hong Kong people to turn on themselves.
But, shouldn’t the ones to fear are the police and the Fascist government, not protesters?
This is so sad!
I can say with 1000% conviction that no one in HK fears for their life based on what protesters are doing. Another 1.7 million marched peacefully in Hong Kong yesterday against the government, the state-sanctioned police violence and their refusal responds to the basic demands made by the majority (and I mean majority) of the people.
But if the police show up, then they fear.
On June 4th 1989, were those people fearing for their lives because of what protesters did?
https://scontent.fhkg4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/69384606_10157653423342664_4395685284113547264_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_oc=AQnNu4Vz0c3zKe_zZXF3FTifxop5LEPolHrWWSD1RIU38lH7rorFS0RYQ2MXaDPdrwQ&_nc_ht=scontent.fhkg4-1.fna&oh=cee7dfbae4f528d2b0d4375dea20760e&oe=5DCF9551
LikeLiked by 1 person