In Germany First They Came For The Communists...
George Brown; Leeds Postcards
Distributed in U.S. by Donnelly/Colt; Red Sun Press
Offset, Circa 1990s
Hampton, CT
62611
The words on this poster are the poetic form of a 1946 post-war confessional prose by Pastor Martin Niemöller.
Here's the 2025 version:
In the United States of America, first they came for the immigrants and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.
Then they came for reproductive rights but I didn't speak up because I wasn't seeking an abortion.
Then they came for the transgender community, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't transgender.
Then they came for students expressing solidarity with Palestine but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a student.
Then they came for the activists, educators, lawyers, DEI supporters, scientists, environmentalists, federal workers . . .
The time to speak up is NOW.
Historical Note:
Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was an outspoken advocate for accepting the burden of collective guilt for World War II as a means of atonement for the suffering that the Nazis had caused before and during World War II. Before becoming a pastor, Niemöller had been a U-boat captain in World War I and supported Hitler before his rise to power—ironically delivering anti-Semitic sermons. But Niemöller soon parted from the Nazis; from 1933 to 1937, he consistently opposed everything that they supported. Until 1937, the foreign press as well as Niemöller's influential friends in the affluent Berlin suburb where he preached protected the pastor. Eventually, he was arrested for treason and found guilty but initially received only a suspended sentence. However, on Hitler's direct orders Niemöller was quickly re-arrested. Until the end of World War II, he was held at the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps, narrowly escaping execution. After the war, Niemöller became an adamant pacifist and advocate of reconciliation.
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