Life is messy

An interesting investigation. From ‘Then they came for me’: A Hitler supporter’s haunting warning has a complicated history by Michael S. Rosenwald.

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.

The words above are displayed at the United States Holocaust Museum. This week, amid outrage over President Trump’s rhetoric about the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who clashed with counterprotesters in Charlottesville, they have been recited around the world as a simple, haunting warning.

But the lineage of those words is more complicated, beginning with Martin Niemöller, the German Protestant pastor who originally spoke them.

Niemöller supported Adolf Hitler and Jewish hatred — until he was sent to a concentration camp.

The case is even more complicated than that. Beware easy origin stories. Of course the full sentiment is:

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out — 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 for me.