"First They Came..."

Take heed…lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and…teach them to your children and to your children's children.

 ~ Deuteronomy 4:9

The poem by Pastor Martin Niemölle seems epecially appropriate in the wake of the fatal shooting of a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. today.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.