Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis

German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller is best known for his celebrated confession:
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• First, they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out--
• Because I was not a Communist.
• Then 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.
• Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

These oft-quoted words at Holocaust commemorative observances might lead you to believe that Niemöller was sympathetic to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust. Not true.

Matthew D. Hockenos, professor of History at Skidmore College and author of Then They Came for Me (Basic Books, 2018), writes that Niemöller (1892-1984) was not incarcerated in concentration camps because he opposed the mass murder of Jews or other atrocities, but for insisting on the political autonomy of German Protestant churches in Nazi Germany.

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