Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis

He was a Lutheran pastor in Germany, who served in the Navy during World War I; he would become a personal prisoner during the reign of Hitler, yet people only know him for his famous poem that starts ‘First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –.‘ The man who came up with that searing poem was Martin Niemoller, and this is the first biography printed about him in English.

Mr. Niemoller is not the easiest subject to handle, and Matthew Hockenos does a decent job of bringing someone that Americans would not recognize to life. Most of the first half is spent reconciling Mr. Niemoller’s support for German nationalism and his early support of the Nazis. He believed that they would revive Germany and leave the churches alone. He did not see them as a threat until they started to interfere with the independence of the church, and he did not see the full horrors until he was free. Hopefully, this biography will help people who read the poem understand this complicated individual and the times he lived through.