The Lutheran minister Martin Niemöller regretted his failure to challenge Nazi persecution of Jews, socialists and others.
His and other Germans’ silence, he acknowledged, had amounted to complicity. He said so in speeches across Western Europe in 1946.
You’ll recognize his admonition. One well-known version starts with …
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist.
… and repeats the phrase, substituting trade unionists and Jews, before ending with …
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.
Niemöller’s caution is no grainy History Channel curiosity. The U.S. attorney general this month directed federal law enforcement to surveil and arrest people it deems anti-Christian and those who oppose immigration enforcement or show “hostility” toward traditional views on family, religion and gender.
It will pay local governments to surveil and arrest.
It will reward neighbors who report neighbors.
Niemöller ultimately found his voice. The Nazis imprisoned him for seven years – his cost of speaking up.
Now our government is coming for us.
The Police States of America.
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