Martin Niemoeller (January 14, 1892-March 6, 1984) was a German submarine captain in World War I; studied theology at Munster; was a pastor at Dahlheim; formed the Pastor's Emergency League to protest the Nazi government; was arrested in 1937; and spent 7 years in concentration camps. He helped to rebuild the Evangelical church in Europe after World War II and served as the president of the World Council of Churches, 1961-68.
As a citizen in Germany during the Nazi regime, Martin Niemoeller wrote:
<In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.> 1892MN001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
1892MN001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Niemoeller. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 824.