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Something in those words reminds me of what some people were saying in early 1930s Nazi Germany: "Serves them right. Goddamn Jews." "First they came for the s
by blisterpeanuts 4y ago
Something in those words reminds me of what some people were saying in early 1930s Nazi Germany: "Serves them right. Goddamn Jews."
"First 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 for me."
—Martin Niemöller
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-nie...
- pessimizer 4y agoThis is an extremely self-serving and deceptive quote from Niemöller, and its life is due to the fact that it works as poetry. The fact is that he cheered them on when they came for the socialists and the trades unionists. He only tacitly supported the rounding up of German Jews because, and I have to paraphrase here, he thought the Jews were "too smart" to "force" Hitler to kill them, and would just leave. His mistake was his belief that the Nazis were good Lutherans rather than Jungian Hindu UFO mystics.
- blisterpeanuts 4y agoThe words are powerful and iconic. From the linked page: "Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported radically right-wing political movements. But after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Niemöller became an outspoken critic of Hitler’s interference in the Protestant Church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in Nazi prisons and concentration camps."