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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
-- Martin Niemöller
Actually first they came for the LGBTQ+ people,
but Martin did not speak out
Because as a conservative catholic priest,
he agreed with it.
-History, actually. We CANNOT afford to leave Anyone behind like this.
EDIT: okay, he was Lutheran. And Both the LGBTQ+ and Communist hate were slow-simmering among the German Nazis, breaking out in state-sanctioned violence almost concurrently.
Its fascinating to see just how much the history parallels what we have today.
That this poem is easily available makes it a great tool. But that it so easily glosses over others that the Nazis targeted as being "un-German" is not something we can accept.
Martin Niemoller, famously a prominent Lutheran pastor, was actually not a Catholic priest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
I agree with your sentiment, but his piece is timeless and too important to history to misrepresent.
EDIT: it’s also my understanding (not a historian though) that communists were the first targets. Political opponents when the nazis first achieved power because they were not strong. The moved on to ideological targets after they had established power.
Your wikipedia link shows this priest excited for Hitler's rise, even voting for Hitler in 1933, after the burning of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft Instititute for Sexual Science.
While this poem is a useful tool, we cannot accept it being used by even the author to obscure the deaths of those he agreed with the Nazis about.
The Nazis had a slow simmer of hate for both Communists and the LGBTQ+ community. Each received state sanctioned violence at the hands of Nazis simultaneously, both being labelled as "un-German"
If you'll pardon the inflammatory language, I'm going to continue communicating the same thought. That priest was a product of his time and place, and fully teaching his poem demands passing on critique of that basis.
Wholly agree with you here in the goal, sentiment, and calling out he’s a product of his time. Once again, here’s a conservative that only cared about something once it affected him. At least he left his words to the ages in hopes others would learn from them instead.
Pretty much, "Never again" means "never again to anyone, ever"
Wondered why the attack on trans people was omitted from the poem.
A little lacking in self-awareness, that guy.
The Nazis and Freikorps went for the commies first though. They were founded like all fascists as an explicitly anti-Marxist group.