Posted on 04/10/2006 8:37:26 AM PDT by JamesP81
I once read a poem about World War 2 that I can't remember the name of. It's pretty famous, so I'm sure there are some FReeps here who should know it and I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me where I could get a copy of it.
The poem describes the lament of a man who stood back and watched as the Nazis came to power in Germany. He knew they were bad people when they started taking certain groups off to concentration camps. He, however, was not a target of the Gestapo just yet so he didn't do anything. But at the end, the Gestapo finally does come for him and he laments that there was no one to speak for him when they did, because everyone else had already been taken.
Thanks in advance for the help.
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945
Thanks!
Damn, quickdraw, good job.
That was the one.
I remember trade unionists.
In addition to having become a Lutheran pastor following the First World War, Herr KaLeu Niemoller was a former u-boat officer during that first global conflict, serving aboard U-73 among others.
Pastor Niemoller passed away in 1984, having survived two World Wars, the Nazi regime, and a stay in Dachau Concentration Camp.
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