First They Came….
Untitled Document

The following is a poem attributed to Martin Niemöller about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

Interestingly enough, he was an early supporter of Hitler only to be later imprisoned at at Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps.

This poem describes the dangers of political apathy. I'm guilty of political apathy and reading this poem kind of smacked me in the face today.

Original Translation

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

 

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

 

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

 

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

 

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

 

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

 

Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.

 

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

 
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.		 When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

RisibleGirl was blabbing on about another adventure on 04/23 at 04:21 PM
  

Cozy wrote:

That's a great poem - unfortunately, i'm guilty too.


  

sarah wrote:

The strangest coincidence. I read the poem here this morning for the first time and just now (late evening) I watched the episode of Desperate Housewives I taped last night. The episode that uses this poem. It was weird; I got the allusion to it before they then started quoting it in adapted form. So thank you for my education!


  

Avatar for Stew
Stew wrote:

And yet, you fancy yourself liberal? Isn't liberalism pretty much tantamount to more government? Isn't that the PROBLEM?

Thomas Jefferson: All tyranny needs to gain a foothold if for people of good conscience to remain silent.

and

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it to tyranny.

I'm glad this is a couple of posts down from current. I don't want to "go political" on you.

Now go feed your poor husband.


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In case you're wondering....
On this day clear back in 2007 I wrote: Crawling out of the trenches to bring you this message
On this day clear back in 2006 I wrote: Did you ever have one of those days?
On this day clear back in 2006 I wrote: SO tacky

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