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Niemöller
/ ˈniːmœlər /
noun
Martin (ˈmartiːn). 1892–1984, German Protestant theologian, who was imprisoned (1938–45) for his opposition to Hitler
Example Sentences
While meant to be a warning that brutality, cruelty, and lawlessness extended toward some would not end with those first targeted, there have always been a few problems with the Niemöller poem.
The first problem with the Niemöller poem is that it only ever works in shaking those who read to the end: You’re meant to understand what it all means the very instant you get to “They came for the Communists.”
The other problem with the Niemöller poem is that it presents as sequential; you can tell yourself that there will be months, years, eons between their coming for the Comeys and the Haitians and the time they come for you.
That’s how authoritarians work, how they have always worked, and it’s why it’s useful to read the Niemöller poem backward.
The persecution of Abrego Garcia and other deported migrants reminds me of another Christian — German theologian Martin Niemöller, who wrote the poem that begins, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a socialist.”
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