Welcome to our collection of quotes by Martin Niemoller. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Martin Niemoller
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈniːmœlɐ] (listen); 14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 poem "First they came ...". The poem exists in many versions; the one featured on the United States Holocaust Memorial reads: “First 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 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.”
Niemöller was a national conservative and initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, but he became one of the founders of the Confessing Church, which opposed the Nazification of German Protestant churches. He opposed the Nazis' Aryan Paragraph, but was also a self-identified antisemite. For his opposition to the Nazis' state control of the churches, Niemöller was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. He narrowly escaped execution. After his imprisonment, he expressed his deep regret about not having done enough to help victims of the Nazis. He turned away from his earlier nationalistic beliefs and was one of the initiators of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt. From the 1950s on, he was a vocal pacifist and anti-war activist, and vice-chair of War Resisters' International from 1966 to 1972. He met with Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War and was a committed campaigner for nuclear disarmament.
The heart does heal and you will love like this again- except when you do, you'll deny that you ever loved like this before.
We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man.
If you can laugh at yourself, you are going to be fine. If you allow others to laugh with you, you will be great.
If your intuition is telling you not to do something, then don't. Your intuition is not stupid.
A man doesn't realize how much he can stand until he is put to the test. You can stand far more than you think you can. You are much stronger than you think you are.
For politicians truth and falsehood are unimportant. So I never could become a politician -- not even a church politician.
We had been frightened of atomic weapons since 1945. In those days I became convinced -- and remain convinced now -- that, after Hitler, Truman was the greatest murderer in the world.
For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man.
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 socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak out for me.