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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFirst they came for the Socialists.....
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Sibylle Niemoeller
Martin Niemöller was born in the Westphalian town of Lippstadt, Germany, on January 14, 1892. In 1910 he became a cadet in the Imperial German Navy. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Niemöller was assigned to a U-Boat, of which he was eventually appointed the commander. Under the stipulations of the armistice of November 11, 1918, that ended hostilities in World War I, Niemöller and other commanders were ordered to turn over their U-Boats to England. Along with many others, Niemöller refused to obey this order, and was, as a consequence, discharged from the Navy.
In 1920, he decided to follow the path of his father and began seminary training at the University of Münster.
Niemöller enthusiastically welcomed the Third Reich. But a turning point in Niemöller's political sympathies came with a January 1934 meeting of Adolf Hitler, Niemöller, and two prominent Protestant bishops to discuss state pressures on churches. At the meeting it became clear that Niemöller's phone had been tapped by the Gestapo (German Secret State Police). It was also clear that the Pastors Emergency League (PEL), which Niemöller had helped found, was under close state surveillance. Following the meeting, Niemöller would come to see the Nazi state as a dictatorship, one which he would oppose.
The Quotation
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation1:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak outbecause 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 outbecause I was not a Jew.
Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
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First they came for the Socialists..... (Original Post)
Fla Dem
Sep 2020
OP
Well he already hugged the flag and waved the Bible in the air. Does that count?
Fla Dem
Sep 2020
#2
doc03
(35,326 posts)1. "When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in
a flag and carrying a cross." I picture Trump with his arms around the flag and him holding up the bible.
That could make a good ad, I think.
Fla Dem
(23,654 posts)2. Well he already hugged the flag and waved the Bible in the air. Does that count?
doc03
(35,326 posts)3. The problem America has been conditioned to hate Communism through decades of cold war
yet we fought a hot war against Fascism and most people haven't a clue what it is.