If anyone is not familiar with the story of Martin Niemöller, it is a good one--it is the one I keep hoping will repeat itself in the GOP, but I'm not seeing many Martin Niemöller's in the party right now. He was a conservative German Lutheran pastor that initially supported Hitler and was an antisemite, but became appalled at what he began to see and vocally turned away from the Nazi party, for which he was put in concentration camps from 1938-1945.
He saw those in his own party, on his side, become more and more monstrous, and it made him look at himself and expel the monster within. He did so publicly and vocally at the cost of his own freedom and at the risk of his own life. He survived and his poem, lamenting his own initial cowardice, "First they came..." is featured at the Holocaust Museum, and has so often been repurposed:
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
He saw those in his own party, on his side, become more and more monstrous, and it made him look at himself and expel the monster within. He did so publicly and vocally at the cost of his own freedom and at the risk of his own life. He survived and his poem, lamenting his own initial cowardice, "First they came..." is featured at the Holocaust Museum, and has so often been repurposed:
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
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