“First they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then 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.
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak for me.”
~ Martin Niemöller (Jan 14, 1892 – Mar 6, 1984)
“On his birthday, remembering Martin Niemoller, who was a key member of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche), along with Dietrich Bonhoeffer & Karl Barth, that opposed the church-state (Nazi-aligned church) of Germany during the 1930s and 40s. Niemöller became “Hitler’s Personal Prisoner” from 1937 until the end of World War II in 1945, imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for his vocal opposition to the Nazification of the church, and becoming a significant symbol of Christian resistance.”