Chamblee54

In an early morning discourse, I said that Martin Niemöller was rolling in his grave looking for the royalties from his poem, “First they came…“.. For those of you with very short memories, here it is.
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.
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was the son of a Lutheran minister. In World War 1, he served on a U boat crew. Harold Marcuse tells this story: “Niemöller was a commander of a German U-boat in World War I. A seminal incident in his moral outlook, … occurred when he commanded his submarine crew not to rescue the sailors of a boat he torpedoed, but let them drown instead. “
After the war Mr. Niemöller became a Lutheran Minister. Mr. Niemöller was originally a supporter of Mr. Hitler, but became an opponent. Mr. Niemöller was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945. After the war, Mr. Niemöller began to speak out. The famous poem was derived from these speeches. It was never written down in typical poet fashion. There are several versions of it from him, and many more as the years rolled by.
In addition to the four groups mentioned above, the Nazis also came for mentally ill, incurably ill, or people in occupied countries. The legend is that when asked if he included Catholics, Mr. Niemöller said “I never said it. They can take care of themselves.” When the McCarthy fever hit America, he declined to mention Communists. Maybe Mr. Niemöller was a pre-mature anti-facist. … If you have a few minutes to spare, the page that quote came from is worth looking at. It is still working in 2025.
With regard to the royalties, I could not see that it was ever copyrighted. I do not know who “owns the rights”. Some have even speculated that the poem was not composed by Mr. Niemöller.
There is the Rebel looking for a cause syndrome. Many people just want to fight about something, and the cause is secondary to the lust for battle. When a poem like this is used to fire up people for a shaky cause, it brings discredit to the poem. Elie Wiesel’s Always take sides is another example.
Then there is the matter of the “Next Hitler” argument. During the run up to the first war against Iraq, Saddam Hussein was routinely called the next Hitler. While this may be a valid argument at times, it often sounds like the boy who cried wolf. The “Next Hitler” argument is covered by Godwin’s Law. On August 13, 2017, Mike Godwin updated his law. @sfmnemonic “By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I’m with you.” Whatever dude.
In 2016, I published a poem, Then They Came. … first they came for the rich, i clicked like on facebook, then they came for #racists, i tweeted a #woke #hashtag, then they came for truth tellers, i gave my #thoughts&prayers, then they came for me. A person complained that I made this about “racists”. Which was my point.
Maybe a general moratorium is needed on the use of “First they Came…”. This is a repost from 2018. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Russell Lee took the social media picture in August 1937. “Resident of Ericsburg, Minnesota”