Posted on 09/07/2010 5:09:13 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Despite his reservations about Nazism, Pastor Niemoeller volunteered to serve in the German Navy if Hitler would release him. He had been a decorated U-boat commander in WWI.
After World War II, he became a communist fellow traveler, President of the World Council of Churches, accepting the Lenin Peace Prize, traveling to Hanoi to praise Ho Chi Minh.
Homer's Comments, 28 Feb 1938 Thread
I have no newspaper articles for today but thought it worthwhile mention the case of Pastor Martin Niemoeller. He was a WWI U-boat commander who became a leader of the German Protestant church. He welcomed the rise of the Nazis in 1933 but became an outspoken anti-Nazi when he came to know them better. Niemoeller was arrested on July 1, 1937."After eight months in prison he was tried on March 2, 1938, before a Sondergreicht, one of the "Special Courts" set up by the Nazis to try offenders against the State, and though acquitted of the main charge of "underhand attacks against the State" was fined two thousand marks and sentenced ot seven months' imprisonment for "abuse of the pulpit" and holding collections in his church. Since he had served more than this time, the court ordered his release, but he was seized by the Gestapo as he was leaving the courtroom, placed in "protective custody" and confined in concentration camps, first at Sachsenhausen and then at Dachau, where he remained for seven years until liberated by Allied troops."
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Niemoeller is known today because of the following poem attributed to him.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
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