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White nationalists who carry the torch gather around a statue of Thomas Jefferson near the Virginia University campus in Charlottesville, August 11, 2017 (Edu Bayer/The New York Times) Syr
Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was a prominent Lutheran shepherd in Germany. In the 1920’s and early 1930’s, he sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported political movements radically on the right.
But after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Niemöller became a critic of Hitler’s interference in the Protestant Church. It spent the last eight years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in the prisons and Nazi concentration camps. He is best known for his poem, “first came.”
Thanks to Niemöller, this is my adaptation based on our current situation in the United States. (Readers can find the original Niemöller at.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_Came.)
First they came from the voting rights of Bipoc and the poor, mostly granting the southern states of freedom of almost 50 years of intense federal supervision of their elections. I did not talk because I never had a problem to register -to vote or vote.
Then they came with statements about August 11, 2017, Charlottesville, Virgínia, Rally, “uniting the right”, saying that “you also had people who were very good people, on both sides”. I didn’t talk because it wasn’t a bipoc or a Jew.
Then they came with accusations of fraudulent elections. I didn’t talk because my state was not directed.
Then came with the historical insurrection in the Capitol of the United States and Congress. I didn’t talk because I felt paralyzed.
Then came with the 2025 project, an authoritarian nationalist plan to lead the United States to autocracy. I did not talk because I thought the plan would not become reality.
They then came with a political campaign through gaps and phrases of disdain focused on bipoc, developmental countries, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, women, Muslims, immigrants and all marginalized groups and less represented. I didn’t talk because they didn’t talk about me.
Then they reached the orders in a strict challenge of the Constitution and the court rulings that included dismantling of Federal Dei programs. Aid and programs for domestic and foreign humanitarian assistance and for the poor, veterans, people with disabilities and the elderly ended. I didn’t talk because these cuts did not affect me.
Then fired tens of thousands of federal employees without due and false pretensions. They then manipulated the stock market in a chaotic period where working class and retirees, among others, lost thousands of dollars for retirement investments. I didn’t talk because it didn’t affect me yet.
Anti-Semitism then argued anti-Semitism with anti-Sionism to retain aid from educational institutions that refused to divert from their policies and programs DEI. I did not talk because I did not know the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Sionism.
At that time, immigrants began to guide as they realized the fear of deportation, even for those in the United States legally, without criminal record, or simply “looking” Latin, Oriental, Caribbean, African, Asian or other ethnicities of color.
“Then they came for me,” Niemöller wrote, “and nobody had to talk to me.”
We must not forget that repression always begins with specific and oriented fear and hatred, which are inclined to cover more and more groups.
Until only the oppressor is left.
Judy Feinstein lives in Springfield.