This week in Christian history: Criswell dies, Presbyterian Church founds life insurance company, anti-Nazi pastor born

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, January 10, 2021

Martin Niemöller born — January 14, 1892

This week marks the anniversary of when Martin Niemöller, a German Lutheran pastor famed for his writing the “First they came for …” poem on Nazi cruelty, was born in Lippstadt, Germany.

The son of a pastor, Niemöller served in the German Navy during the First World War and was originally sympathetic to Nazism, until it began to interfere in church affairs.

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Niemöller is most remembered for his famous "first they came" confession about oppression under the Third Reich, whose wording, while varied at times, goes as follows:

First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

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