Not quite; he supported Hitler, but represented a separate institution: the Church. A reminder that fascism rises not just as a consequence of legislative or executive shenanifans, but when civil institutions are complicit in it.
It is certainly an interesting perspective. When reading the poem without context it’s easy to think “I wasn’t a Communist” is the perspective of a hypothetical participant, but it is entirely autobiographical and the callousness of the protagonist is painfully real.
[…] what would have happened, if in the year 1933 or 1934—there must have been a possibility—14,000 Protestant pastors and all Protestant communities in Germany had defended the truth until their deaths? If we had said back then, it is not right when Hermann Göring simply puts 100,000 Communists in the concentration camps, in order to let them die. I can imagine that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 Protestant Christians would have had their heads cut off, but I can also imagine that we would have rescued 30–40 million people, because that is what it is costing us now.
Especially considering back then, Churches likely had a far bigger influence than they do now. Christians could have easily stopped nazism if they had a backbone.
![I voted for the leopards [Haus of Decline]](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/83b0ccf4-db91-445d-a5a7-6f4ccdab2251.webp){kind=link}
I case anyone is unfamiliar:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then 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 out for me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…
Amazing how relevant a poem written just after WW2 is to how people voted in this last US election.
It was literally written by someone who was in the leopards eating faces party. Wow.
Not quite; he supported Hitler, but represented a separate institution: the Church. A reminder that fascism rises not just as a consequence of legislative or executive shenanifans, but when civil institutions are complicit in it.
It is certainly an interesting perspective. When reading the poem without context it’s easy to think “I wasn’t a Communist” is the perspective of a hypothetical participant, but it is entirely autobiographical and the callousness of the protagonist is painfully real.
Especially considering back then, Churches likely had a far bigger influence than they do now. Christians could have easily stopped nazism if they had a backbone.