First they came...

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Martin Niemöller

"First they came ..." is a popular poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Although the precise origin of the poem is not known, Niemöller stated^{[citation needed]} he prefers the version as:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
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.

History

Martin Niemöller was a German pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. Niemöller was an anti-Communist and supported Hitler's rise to power at first. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion, Niemöller became disillusioned. He became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler. Unlike Niemöller, they gave in to the Nazis' threats. Hitler personally detested Niemöller and in 1937 had him arrested and eventually confined in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Niemöller was released in 1945 by the Allies. He continued his career in Germany as a clergyman and as a leading voice of penance and reconciliation for the German people after World War II. His poem is well-known, frequently quoted, and is a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy, as it often begins with specific and targeted fear and hatred which soon escalates out of control.

References

In December 2009, a parish priest in Derry, Northern Ireland used the poem as the final words of a moving sermon denouncing the child abuse scandals in the Irish Catholic Church. The sermon was greeted instantly with a standing ovation.

The song Exodus by Punk-Rock band Anti-Flag begins with "First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out, then they came for the socialists and I did not speak out, then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out, and then they came for me." This line is also repeated before the last verse of the song

Controversy over origin and text

The poem was published in a 1955 book by Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, based on interviews he'd conducted in Germany several years earlier. The quotation was widely circulated by social activists in the United States in the late 1960s. The poem's exact origin is unclear, and at least one historian has incorrectly suggested that the poem arose after Niemöller's death.^[1] Recent research has traced the sentiments expressed in the poem to speeches given by Niemöller in 1946.^[2] Nonetheless, the poem's wording remains controversial, both in terms of its provenance, and the substance and order of the groups that are mentioned in its many versions. While Niemöller's published 1946 speeches mention Communists, the incurably ill, Jews or Jehovah's Witnesses (depending on which speech), and people in occupied countries; the 1955 text, a paraphrase by a German professor in an interview, lists: Communists, Socialists, "the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on," and ends with "the Church." However, as cited by Richard John Neuhaus in the November 2001 issue of First Things, when "asked in 1971 about the correct version of the quote, Niemöller said he was not quite sure when he had said the famous words but, if people insist upon citing them, he preferred a version that listed "the Communists", "the trade unionists", "the Jews", and "me". But to quibble as to who is or who is not on the list and as to the order of the list is to miss the whole point of the poem for when "they came for me" there was indeed no one left.

References

See also

• The Hangman (poem)

External links

• Niemöller, origin of famous quotation Harold Marcuse, UC Santa Barbara (2005)
• Niemöller's famous quotation as posted by Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"
• First They Came for the Jews Franklin H. Littell
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