Zitat von Martin Niemoeller

21.02.2002 Baxmann, Matthias <bax0211aol.com>
Re: Zitat von Martin Niemoeller

21.02.2002 Drummer, Heike <ZeitKontoraol.com>
Re: Zitat von Martin Niemoeller

22.02.2002 Wintzer, Joachim <historikerdeutschlandweb.de>
Re: Zitat von Martin Niemoeller

Die Witwe von Martin Niemoeller, Sibylle Sarah Niemoeller von Sell, hat in Beitraegen vom 24. April 2000 und 28. Januar 2001 fuer h-holocaust zum Wortlaut und zur erstmaligen Verwendung des Zitats folgendes mitgeteilt:

1) My husband's quotation dates from an informal talk with an American student in the United States after a lecture he gave some time in the l960s, in reply to the young man's question who had asked him across a table: "Pastor, how was it possible?" These words, in the succession that they were originally spoken, later chiseled into the wall of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, are correct. At first, however, they had added the Catholics (Hitler never "came" for the Catholics as Catholics as such, nor did he for the Protestants as Protestants, only for those among them who opposed him). After some correspondence between the museum and with Franklin Littell as well as myself in the mid-nineties, they corrected the message.

2) I can certainly help you in correcting your version of this famous quotation. Pastor Niemoeller was my husband. "First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." Only in this order is the quotation authentic and historically correct. The Catholics (or the Protestants) were NEVER mentioned and even in the Washington Holocaust Museum they had to alter their version which did included the Catholics. If you want any more information on the subject, I will be glad to answer your questions as best I know how. E-mail me at Sinieaol.com - I live in Doylestown, PA.

Joachim Wintzer