"First 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 for me."
Martin Niemoller (1892–1984) was a pastor in the German Protestant Church in Hitler's Germany. His original statement was probably about the cowardice of the German Church following the Nazis' rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
"When Pastor Niemöller was put in a concentration camp we wrote the year 1937; when the concentration camp was opened we wrote the year 1933, and the people who were put in the camps then wereCommunists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers.
Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians - "should I be my brother's keeper?"
Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. - I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? -- Only then did the church as such take note. Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated theoccupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers
I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out."
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 for me."
Martin Niemoller (1892–1984) was a pastor in the German Protestant Church in Hitler's Germany. His original statement was probably about the cowardice of the German Church following the Nazis' rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
An English translation of Niemöller's speech for the Confessing Church in Frankfurt on 6 January 1946 is as follows:
"When Pastor Niemöller was put in a concentration camp we wrote the year 1937; when the concentration camp was opened we wrote the year 1933, and the people who were put in the camps then wereCommunists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers.
Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians - "should I be my brother's keeper?"
Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. - I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? -- Only then did the church as such take note. Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated theoccupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers
I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out."
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