Martin Niemoller: A Living Martyr

Martin Niemöller was born in the Westphalian town of Lippstadt, Germany, on January 14, 1892. In 1910 he became a cadet in the Imperial German Navy. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Niemöller was assigned to a U-Boat, of which he was eventually appointed the commander. Under the stipulations of the armistice of November 11, 1918, that ended hostilities in World War I, Niemöller and other commanders were ordered to turn over their U-Boats to England. Along with many others, Niemöller refused to obey this order, and was, as a consequence, discharged from the Navy.

In 1920, he decided to follow the path of his father and began seminary training at the University of Münster.

Niemöller enthusiastically welcomed the Third Reich. But a turning point in Niemöller's political sympathies came with a January 1934 meeting of Adolf Hitler, Niemöller, and two prominent Protestant bishops to discuss state pressures on churches. At the meeting it became clear that Niemöller's phone had been tapped by the Gestapo (German Secret State Police). It was also clear that the Pastors Emergency League (PEL), which Niemöller had helped found, was under close state surveillance. Following the meeting, Niemöller would come to see the Nazi state as a dictatorship, one which he would oppose.

The Quotation

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation¹ :

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

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.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

The quotation stems from Niemöller's lectures during the early postwar period. Different versions of the quotation exist. These can be attributed to the fact that Niemöller spoke extemporaneously and in a number of settings. Much controversy surrounds the content of the poem as it has been printed in varying forms, referring to diverse groups such as Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Trade Unionists, or Communists depending upon the version. Nonetheless his point was that Germans had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people. He felt this was true in particular of the leaders of the Protestant churches (of which the Lutheran church was one denomination).

A Controversial Figure

In the wake of Nazism, Niemöller's prominence as an opposition figure gave him international stature though he remained controversial. Not until 1963, in a West German television interview, did Niemöller acknowledge and make a statement of regret about his own antisemitism.²  He was nonetheless one of the earliest Germans to talk publicly about broader complicity in the Holocaust and guilt for what had happened to the Jews. In his book Über die deutsche Schuld, Not und Hoffnung (published in English as Of Guilt and Hope)—which appeared in January 1946—Niemöller wrote:

"Thus, whenever I chance to meet a Jew known to me before, then, as a Christian, I cannot but tell him: 'Dear Friend, I stand in front of you, but we cannot get together, for there is guilt between us. I have sinned and my people have sinned against thy people and against thyself.'" 

Last Edited: Mar 30, 2012

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

 “What is the Will of God in my Life?”

“Your Will be Done; on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Matthew: 6:10

 

I don’t know about you, but for me, I have often wondered what the will of God is in my life. For most of my life, I have wrestled with this question and often have frozen up, and I don’t have a clue. I get caught up in the mire of indecision, worry, anxiety and distress. Inevitably, I decide to do something and most of the time, it is not God’s will.

 

I often have struggled with trying to determine God’s will when making important decisions. For example, what should I do when I confront my boss on an ethical question fearing that I might lose my job? Should I marry this girl, or not? Do I follow my convictions and join a protest march over the innocent death of an African American boy at the hands of the police or be afraid that my conservative friends will cease to be my friends? I am afraid that I may be arrested while practicing non-violent civil disobedience? Do I follow my selfish tendencies and want my comatose husband to continue “living” and instead of let him go?

 

Last summer, while a teaching a class, we were discussing the same topic. We concluded that knowing the will of God is not based on specific situations, such as the questions from the previous paragraph. Rather, God’s will is my decision to follow the Way of the Christ. We decide to follow Him, no matter where He leads us.

 

We have the faith to live with Him by trusting Him. Faith is belief in Him. Trusting is acting in faith for Him. Trusting Him is putting our “boots on the ground,” and following him.

 

This is what the Apostle Paul means when he exhorts his house churches:

 

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:1-3

 

What Paul means is that we align our mind with Christ. We live into the “mind of Christ.” It takes a lifetime to achieve this. Fortunately, God is patient with us, because He “first loved us,” offering is extravagant Grace. 

 

Why? Because Paul time and time again reminds his first century churches what became the earliest creed, which we repeat at Sunday worship. Christ lives. He is condemned. He is crucified. He is resurrected. He will come again.”  

 

Paul writes again and again that we are the Church, the koinonia. We are the saints as the “body of Christ” on earth. Christ is present with us when we gather with Him, especially when we celebrate Holy communion. When we eat His body and drink His blood it is more than “in remembrance of me,” as is often carved on communion tables. He is present now. 

 

Yet, Christ invites us to follow him, if we are to discover God’s will in our life 

 

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Mark 8:34-36

 

That is radical stuff. It is costly because Jesus forces us to be transformed into His image, or “metanoia.” This is radical stuff because we are transformed from the way we are in our brokenness into the way He wants us to be. Is this what Jesus means when we live into the will of God?  

 

We walk the way of Christ; living in His will. We have the “blessed assurance” that “all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” (14^th century mystic Julian of Norwich)