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Martin Niemöller Holocaust Poetry
The Most Famous Holocaust Poem

compiled and edited by Michael R. Burch, an editor
and publisher of Holocaust and Nakba poetry

The most famous Holocaust poem of all time, "First They Came for the Jews," was written by Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor and theologian who was born in Germany in 1892. At one time a supporter of Hitler’s policies, he eventually came to oppose them and as a result was arrested and confined to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. After narrowly avoiding execution at the hands of the Nazis, he was liberated by the Allies in 1945 and continued his career in Germany as a clergyman, pacifist and anti-war activist.

First They Came For The Jews
by Martin Niemöller

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 out for me.

As an editor and publisher of Holocaust poetry, I am alarmed to see eerily similar things happening today in the United States, so I have written an American version of the poem:

First They Came For The Muslims
by Michael R. Burch

First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was not a homosexual.

Then they came for the union workers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a union worker.

When will they come for me
because I was too busy
to speak for the rights of others?

Today all around the United States right-wing conservatives are proposing and passing new legislation which strips minority groups of basic rights. Some of those minority groups may seem small, but together they represent tens of millions of Americans: legal immigrants, homosexuals, Muslims, union workers, teachers who engage in collective bargaining, et al. We need to remember that the Holocaust began when German laws and courts were subverted to deny "undesirable" people basic rights. Before long, if someone "looked wrong" they could be arrested on suspicion alone, to be held indefinitely without charges, hearings or trials. When President Obama signed the new National Defense Authorization Act into law, he in effect gave our military the "right" to arrest and detain American citizens on suspicion alone, without charges, hearings or trials. This is a disturbing step in a terrible direction: away from the light of equality and the rule of law, toward the darkness of irrational suspicions and lawlessness.

Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller [1892 – 1984] was not a Holocaust denier, and he never denied his own guilt. After Niemöller's former cell-mate Leo Stein was released from Sachsenhausen to go to America, he wrote an article about Niemöller for The National Jewish Monthly in 1941. Stein said that when he asked Niemöller why he had ever supported the Nazi Party, Niemöller replied:

"I find myself wondering about that too. I wonder about it as much as I regret it. Still, it is true that Hitler betrayed me. I had an audience with him, as a representative of the Protestant Church, shortly before he became Chancellor, in 1932. Hitler promised me, on his word of honor, to protect the Church and not to issue any anti-Church laws. He also agreed not to allow pogroms against the Jews, assuring me as follows: 'There will be restrictions against the Jews, but there will be no ghettos, no pogroms, in Germany.' I really believed, given the widespread anti-Semitism in Germany, at that time—that Jews should avoid aspiring to Government positions or seats in the Reichstag. There were many Jews, especially among the Zionists, who took a similar stand. Hitler's assurance satisfied me at the time. On the other hand, I hated the growing atheistic movement, which was fostered and promoted by the Social Democrats and the Communists. Their hostility toward the Church made me pin my hopes on Hitler for a while. I am paying for that mistake now; and not me alone, but thousands of other persons like me."

In 1959, he was asked about his former attitude toward the Jews by Alfred Wiener, a Jewish researcher into racism and war crimes committed by the Nazi regime. In a letter to Wiener, Niemöller stated that his eight-year imprisonment by the Nazis became the turning point in his life, after which he viewed things differently.

After the war, Niemöller was president of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau from 1947 to 1961. He was one of the initiators of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, signed by leading figures in the German Protestant churches. The document acknowledged that the churches had not done enough to resist the Nazis.

After a meeting with Otto Hahn (who has been called the "father of nuclear chemistry") in July 1954, Niemöller became an ardent pacifist and campaigner for nuclear disarmament. He was soon a leading figure in the post-war German peace movement and was even brought to court in 1959 because he had spoken about the military in a very unflattering way. His visit to North Vietnam's communist ruler Ho Chi Minh at the height of the Vietnam War caused an uproar. Niemöller also took active part in protests against the Vietnam War and the NATO Double-Track Decision. In 1961, he became president of the World Council of Churches. He earned the Lenin Peace Prize in 1966. He died at Wiesbaden in 1984.

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