'Then They Came for Me'

Review by Bill Doughty

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.

 — Martin Niemöller

How does an individual confront rising authoritarianism and the threat of totalitarianism?

In his great historical biography, "Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis" (Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2018), Matthew D. Hockenos shows the paradox and irony of Niemöller – his life and times – as a man who dealt with the rise and ruthlessness of Adolph Hitler.

Hockenos presents a fascinating biography of Niemöller as patriotic warfighter, Christian dissident and (eventually) reluctant pacifist. The book also is a history of anti-Semitism and Germany's participation as an aggressor in two World Wars.

Niemöller was born to follow in his father's footsteps as a Lutheran Church leader – but he had an early childhood love of the sea. As a boy he wore a sailor suit every Sunday and pretended to be a sailor in the kaiser's navy.

Tirpitz

In "Then They Came for Me," readers jump right into the naval arms race of the late 1800s that eventually propelled the world into the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm and his chief of staff of the naval executive command, Alfred von Tirpitz, were impressed with the strategies of Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan. They also embraced the imperialism and militarism of their time with rising new technologies and war-making mechanized capabilities.

"The maritime expansion from the 1890s to 1914 electrified the German middle class, which took great pleasure in the spectacles of modern shipbuilding, launches of new warships, and ceremonial fleet reviews presided over by the kaiser. The race to build more and better ships, the cult of the uniform, and the naval mania in the popular media bolstered their patriotism. Tirpitz's Naval Office carried out its own public relations campaign aimed at influencing popular opinion and the legislative process. Active and retired officers, writers, and friendly academics – so-called fleet professors (Flottenprofessoren) – disseminated naval propaganda through books, brochures, newspaper articles, and lectures. A young Martin Niemöller gobbled it all up."

Niemöller

Among the new technologies: giant warships and submarines.

"By the time Niemöller joined the navy, the arms race was in full swing. The British had upped the ante in 1905 with the construction of the 17,900-ton Dreadnought. Mounted with ten huge cannons, the ship was nonetheless capable of high speed – twenty-one knots – thanks to its state-of-the-art turbine. Kaiser Wilhelm and Admiral Tirpitz responded with rapid construction of their own 'dreadnoughts' and increasingly efficient U-boats (Unterseeboot, or undersea boat)."

In a whites-only, male-only navy officer corps that excluded social democrats, trade unionists and Jews, Niemöller became a U-boat officer and eventually U-boat commander.

Hockenos reports on the devastation German submarines wrought to ships, including civilian ocean liners. Niemöller supported unrestricted submarine warfare even as U-boats sank the Lusitania and Arabic, murdering 2,000 people, including 131 Americans.

Niemöller served aboard U73, U39 and U151; he eventually had command of U151.

HMS in Quebec in 1908, eight years before being sunk by a mine from Niemöller's U-boat U73.

Niemöller called his service aboard the mine-laying submarine U73, in which he sank six British warships, including the HMS Russell, during "our Christian cruise." He believed in "Prussian militarism and Protestant nationalism," Hockenos writes, and he fought fervently against separation of church and state. 

As with most German Christians at the time, he had a revulsion for the Jewish religion, which was part of a 2,000 year heritage of anti-Semitism in Europe. Ironically, the German Christians thought they, not the Jews, were God's chosen people: "Gott mit uns" – God is with us.

Hockenos shows shipboard hardships and domestic disunity at the end of the war as Germany neared defeat. Only a revolt of enlisted sailors prevented a last-minute suicide mission by the navy. In the hastily achieved Treaty of Versailles (in which the President Wilson was sick due to the influenza pandemic of 1918), Germany lost "80 percent of its naval fleet, all of its colonies, and, as far as the people were concerned, all of its dignity."

Karl Barth and Martin Niemöller.

Niemöller began his Lutheran religious studies at the University of Münster one hundred years ago – in January, 1920.

In their nation's defeat, most Germans blamed the Jews. Church leaders, including Niemöller, vilified the Jews for crucifying Christ. The Church in Germany split between the conservative nationalists who supported Hitler and the progressive independents like Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and, to a lesser degree, Niemöller.

With Barth, Niemöller tried to keep church autonomy, but still wanted to prove to the Nazis, including the minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, that he was a loyal nationalist. In the mid-1930s he wrote a "wildly popular" autobiography, "From U-Boat to Pulpit."

"Niemöller's Prussian militarism and Protestant nationalism, proudly on display throughout the book, were the very principles that Hitler exploited in his rise to power. That Niemöller didn't play down these sentiments after a year and a half of Nazi terror and thuggery says a great deal about his political sympathies lay in 1934. Just a month before Niemöller wrote his book, Hitler ordered the SS to murder nearly two hundred leading SA (aka brownshirt) officials and conservative politicians he feared were undermining his authority."

Goebbels

The Nazis arrested Niemöller several times and finally put him on trial for courageously speaking out for church autonomy; the Nazis ordered all churches to fly German national flags and swastika banners. They demanded loyalty and support to the state. 

During the trial, Nazis attempted to influence the Ministry of Justice – pressuring for no witnesses and criticizing the way the trial was conducted. When Goebbels didn't like the results of the court he publicly berated the jurists, "calling them derogatory names and threatening to put them before a firing squad once the trial was over."

Goebbels's diary entry reads like a modern-day angry tweet. Goebbels wrote: "The 'Holy' pastor become insolent and the court warmly encourages him. A real Scandal!"

After the trial resulted in what was in effect an acquittal, Niemöller was still not set free. Instead he was made a personal "prisoner of Hitler" and eventually sent to Dachau Concentration Camp. He would not return home for nearly eight years.

Dachau Nazi concentration camp.

With the verdict and imprisonment Niemöller became a martyr and gained international fame. In Brooklyn, Reverend John Paul Jones of Union Church performed a reenactment of Niemöller's imprisonment, including with actors in Gestapo uniforms. Jones then preached his sermon behind what looked like a prison door and barred window.

Back in Germany, In the wake of a failed assassination attempt, Hitler ordered the killing of 11,000 dissidents he called "enemies of the state." Among those murdered was Bonhoeffer. Niemöller barely escaped; he made his way to Italy in the closing days of the war.

The imprisonment opened Niemöller's mind, Hockenos says, to a more ecumenical, universal and united Protestantism. Still, he was drawn to nationalism and authoritarianism. "Frequent rants against the U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War" brought condemnation from Gen. Lucius Clay, Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces Europe.

But, Niemöller's experience in prison and some deep post-war reflection also led him gradually toward pacifism. He saw Gandhi as a prophet. Though he supported the "police action" in Korea in the 1950s, he was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War a decade later, even traveling there twice during the war and in speaking out against American bombing campaigns and escalation.

As World Church Council President, Niemöller recorded "Help Vietnam."

Regarding Vietnam, he warned that the war "will sow hatred and enmity toward Americans for years to come." He condemned the killing of innocent people, including children. He became friends with Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Schweitzer and Linus Pauling – each recipients of Nobel Peace Prizes.

Reflecting the layers of paradox and irony in Niemöller's life, he became closer to Germany's former enemy, Russia, attracted to aspects of Soviet Communism. He even accepted the Lenin Prize after a visit to Hanoi in 1967.

Hockenos writes, "(H)is desire to bridge East and West, North and South, through dialogue and mutual trust seems to have blinded him to the harsh realities and criminal nature of Communism – the material deprivations, the lack of freedom and due process, and the mass incarceration and executions."

Pope Pius XII

In later life, after reflecting on Protestants' role – as well as Pope Pius XII's reported appeasement of Fascism and Nazism – Niemöller became Germany's face of contrition, humility and repentance to the world. (Of note, NPR reports today that the Vatican opened Pope Pius XII's archives "after decades of pressure from historians and Jewish groups" so scholars can evaluate the pontiff's role during World War II.)

Hockenos reveals a big twist in the pastor's personal life an interesting connection between his family and the Weisbaden U.S. Air Force Hospital and local Department of Defense Dependents School. Stepson U. Marcus Niemöller attended school there in the 1970s.

Martin Niemöller died 36 years ago: March 6, 1984.

"Then They Came for Me" provides an inspiring profile of a man who had the courage to live by his convictions and yet examine his beliefs as "an ordinary, and ordinarily flawed, human being." It shows an individual's capacity to evolve.

"But it is the imperfection of Niemöller's moral compass that makes him all the more relevant today. This middle-class, conservative Protestant, who harbored ingrained prejudices against those not like him, did something excruciatingly difficult for someone of his background: he changed his mind."

Hockenos concludes, "When the facts indicted that he had taken the wrong path, the former U-boat pilot changed course, albeit grudgingly and often very slowly."

This is a remarkable and worthwhile book for readers interested in the World Wars, the role of religion in politics, and how individuals react in the rise of totalitarianism.

The Colorado National Guard hosts a "Season of Light" ceremony at the Joint Force Hq., Centennial, Co., Dec. 19, 2019. Special guest speaker Jack Adler, a Holocaust survivor, spoke about the history of anti-Semitism and living a life free from hate. On April 29, 1945 soldiers of the 157th Infantry helped liberate Dachau concentration camp. (Photo by Maj. Darin Overstreet)

Video of survivor Jack Adler's talk is available at https://youtu.be/zi5COUaanHQ.