Posted on 06/18/2004 12:59:32 PM PDT by mrustow
Most of us, in this PC age, are familiar with the following sentiments or some variant, supposedly written by prominent German Protestant theologian and pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) about the Nazis.
Two things always bothered me about this passage. The first, of course, is that there are so many varieties of this "quote." Sundry versions include Catholics, homosexuals, socialists, and Social Democrats, while the US Holocaust Museum itself omits the communists. The most historically accurate statement would have it in the order communists, socialists, trade unionists, and Jews. Moreover, "they" never came for Catholics or Protestants per se. Rather, they went after many Christian religious figures who spoke out against the Nazis. Secondly, there is a complete lack of emotional focus, and the conclusion or punch line is at best facile, if not downright dishonest. He starts off confessing that he did not speak out when he should have, perhaps implying a collective guilt of all Germans. Indeed, Niemöller was a principal author of the Stuttgarter Schuldbekenntnis ("Stuttgart Confession of Guilt"). The problem is that many people DID speak out against the Nazis -- although it accomplished little, and even some, like Pope Pius XII, who did more than speak out, and actually helped Jews and other escape death, are now routinely pilloried in the Leftist press, even though Pius was praised after World War II by Golda Meir, and contemporary Jewish leaders. Moreover, when the Gestapo finally came for Martin Niemöller in 1937, his life was spared because George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester, and others spoke up for him. In fact, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels urged Adolf Hitler to have Niemöller executed, but party ideologist, and probably the purest Nazi of them all, Alfred Rosenberg, hardly a humanitarian, argued against the idea as he believed it would provide an opportunity for people like Bishop Bell to attack the German government. Hitler agreed, and Niemöller spent the rest of the war in Dachau. It must be noted that Niemöller was a fervent supporter of Hitler, and even volunteered to serve in the German Army in 1939. He got himself put into the infamous concentration camp merely for opposing Hitler's control of the churches in Germany, and had never opposed Nazi racial theories. Far from it: In 1931 Niemöller made speeches arguing that Germany needed a Führer, and in his sermons he espoused Hitler's views on race and nationality. This all came out in a mea culpa press conference he gave in Naples in June of 1945. Widespread public outcry prevented him from entering England after the war, his mission of reconciliation notwithstanding. It was at this point that he became a committed socialist and peace-freak, campaigning against the formation of NATO, condemning Harry Truman as second only to Hitler as a mass murderer, praising Ho Chi Minh, and winning the coveted Lenin Peace Prize in 1967. Some time after he died in 1984, the poem First They Came For The Communists began to circulate in all of its many forms, and nearly always with attribution to Niemöller. But there is serious doubt whether he wrote it at all, since it is not mentioned by either of his biographers [Dietmar Schmidt (1959) and James Bentley (1984)], and the anecdote most often cited to prove its origin cannot possibly be true. In this fantasy, he is asked, in 1946, by some students how the Holocaust could have happened, and he answers with the poem. The source, though, is his second wife Sybil von Sell, whom he did not marry until 1971, who was a young child when this allegedly occurred, and could have no personal knowledge of the incident. Rather, she enjoyed the celebrity and was only too happy to feed the myth, offering no explanation of how such pearls of wisdom could have been kept from the public for 38 long years. A more realistic assessment is that the poem was written by an anonymous Leftist, perhaps a friend of Niemöller's, who knew that its turgid and vague sentiment would disappear unless credited to a well-known, if ultimately fraudulent "hero." Just one more deception brought to you by the usual suspects. What a surprise.First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
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.
Finally, they came for me and there was no one left to speak out.
I would tend to think the letter was a fraud for a couple reasons.
1. I'm fairly certain the Bonhoeffer and Niemoller communicated a good deal during the 30's about what was happening in Germany and what the response of the church should be. Bonhoeffer took a stand against Hitler early on and publicly denounced (on radio I believe) the eugenics (against the handicapped etc) program and other "cleansing" movements that Hitler was instituting. It's hard to believe Niemoeller would have supported the Nazis in such things given their relationship and Bonhoeffer's stand. They were both instrumental in the Confessing Church movement.
2. If the Nazis could have enlisted Niemoeller in the military I have to believe they would have jumped all over it. For this noisy pastor to have been shown joining the German Army would have been an enormous coup and given real legitimacy to what the Nazis were doing. Niemoeller publicly defied Hitler to his face amongst a group of other pastors when Hitler was attempting to co-opt the churches and was seen as a real rabble rouser.
3. Given the fact that Niemoeller had been arrested by the Germans 6 times by 1937 indicates his resistance early on.
It's hard to believe that given his relationships, arrest record, public confrontation with Hitler and 7 year imprisonment that he agreed with the Nazis on much of anything. I'm certain that just as with Bonhoeffer (who like Niemoeller deeply loved Germany) he attempted to exhaust all possibilites in working with his government, but ultimately it became clear what he was up against and what he would have to do.
Uh yeah. I was being silly. I had thought it was pretty obvious..
Read #79.
If you are right, then you will be able to point out where the writer lied. Otherwise, I will have to wrote you off as just another blowhard on a barstool.
Movement on floor laughter my a-- off!
---Otherwise, I will have to wrote you off as just another blowhard on a barstool.---
That's rich coming from someone who posts an article claiming a dead man who was arrested 6 times by the Gestapo and held in Nazi prisons for 7 years, was a Nazi sympathizer, and then defends the article as if it was holy writ!
Hmmm... interesting. Thanks for the ping, glad I didn't respond with my typical reflex. :-)
One of the reasons I am so found on Deitrich Bonhoffer is the fact that he had a chance ot stay in the US when he came here for a visit ( I think in 1939). People urged him not to go back but he went back anyway and was involved in some of the effort to get rid of Hitler early...That makes it easier and as you mention his writings are substantial from his time in prison ....
read post #81...
Bump in honor of Bonhoeffer and the Confessors.
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