Niemoller and What Americans can learn from him

There is a congressional record 1968 document that records Niemoller as saying, "When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned."

Martin Niemoller was ordained a Lutheran pastor 1924. He was a part of a group that opposed Nazism in Germany. He and some fellow Lutheran followers formed a resistance movement that was called the "Confessional Church". The Confessional Church opposed the Hilter Nazi religious banter and the agenda to punish those who didn't walk the line.

German government put in place a sterilization law in 1933. This law ended up with many who were forced to have sterilization done simply because they were believed to be a person that had hereditary character of diseases that could be passed on to future generations. Sick I know! Hard to believe, I know!

National Socialism Resolutions were created under Hitler that demanded the rule be 'One People, One Reich, One Faith,'. This was a well known agenda pushed by the German Church that was put in place. Any pastor under Hitler rule had to take an oath of allegiance to him and to the German Church, they had to be loyal to teach and believe 'One People, One Reich, One Faith'. Those who would not take the oath or protested this were arrested and jailed.

He rejected the Nazi distortion of Positive Christianity (postulating the special virtue of the German people), as opposed to Negative Christianity which held that all people regardless of race were guilty of sin and in need of repentance. An excerpt from a sermon of his printed in TIME Magazine [Feb 21, 1928, pg 25-27]:

Niemoller was protected in Berlin where he preached for a while. Eventually he was imprisoned in a concentration camp for his opposition to Hitler and the Nazi rise to power and he was charged with treason.

Rev. Martin Niemoller was protected until 1937 by both the foreign press and influential friends in the up-scale Berlin suburb where he preached. Eventually, he was arrested for treason. Perhaps due to foreign pressure, he was found guilty, but initially given only a suspended sentence. He was however then almost immediately re-arrested on Hitler’s direct orders. From then on until the end of WW II, he was held at the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Near the end of the war, he narrowly escaped execution. [from Charles Colson’s Kingdoms in Conflict]

He eventually emerged from prison and still continued to speak out about his opposition to Hitlerism in Nazi Germany. He actively sought out contacts in Eastern Europe, and traveled to Moscow in 1952 and North Vietnam in 1967. He received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967, and the West German Grand Cross of Merit in 1971. Martin Niemoller died in Wiesbaden, West Germany on Mar 6, 1984, at the age of 92. [from the Encyclopedia Britannica].

I ask myself everyday, where is America headed?

We know that loyalty oaths were debated about during the campaign in 2004.

We know that Bush isn't honest. We know Bush LIES! Bush claimed in 2004 “Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.” We now know the spy program was implemented in 2001!

We know citizens don't have the right any longer to a lawyer or speedy trial here in America. Which by the way is protected in the Constitutional admendments!! I could go on for hours, even days on everything wrong about G.W. Bush but I won't. You bet your ass I can truly sum up the good things he has done in ONE STATEMENT.

--George W. Bush just finished a speech here at the Whitehouse Rose Garden, he can be quoted as saying, "I have decided it is in the best interest for the country that I give up power of the Presidency." The rumble of the crowd and excitement can literally be felt in your feet. Back to you Anderson Cooper!--

oh oh sorry I was daydreaming .....

Mental thought of my own: When they attacked the homosexuals, I was not a homosexual, therefore I was not concerned. And when they attacked environmentalist, I was not a part of environmentalism, and therefore, I was not concerned. When they attacked the liberals, I was not a liberal, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when they attacked the unions and the anti-war groups, I was not a member of the unions or an anti-war groups and I was not concerned. Then they attacked me along with the true conservatives-- and by then there was nobody left to be concerned.