Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.263
Object Name
Postcard
Date
1980
Description
This a postcard with a black background and green text. There is an image of red chains/wire. This postcard reads,
"first they came for the Jews, and I did not speak outâ
Because I was not a Jew.
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 me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me."
The author of the poem is cited at the bottom of the postcard - this says "Pastor Niemoeller (Victim of the Nazis).""First they came â¦" is the poetic form of a 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892â1984). It is about the silence of German intellectuals and certain clergyâincluding, by his own admission, Niemöller himselfâfollowing the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Many variations and adaptations in the spirit of the original have been published in the English language. It deals with themes of persecution, guilt, repentance, and personal responsibility. Martin Niemöller was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. Niemöller was an anti-Communist and supported Adolf Hitler's rise to power. But when, after he came to power, Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion, Niemöller became disillusioned. He became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler. In 1937 he was arrested and eventually confined in Sachsenhausen and Dachau. He was released in 1945 by the Allies. He continued his career in Germany as a clergyman and as a leading voice of penance and reconciliation for the German people after World War II.
