"It is the province of knowledge to speak. And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Martin Niemöller




"First 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."
Martin Niemöller

  


Niemöller (1892-1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, despite his ardent nationalism. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the above quotation.

Further Reading
  • James Bentley, Martin Niemöller: 1892-1984 (NY: Macmillan Free Press, 1984).
  • Victoria Barnett, For the Soul of the People: Protestant Protest under Hitler (NY: Oxford University Press, 1992).
  • Wolfgang Gerlach, And the Witnesses were Silent: The Confessing Church and the Jews (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2000).