"First they came for the ..."
Images Page

Pictures of the Niemöller Quotation

page compiled by Harold Marcuse
(professor of German history at UC Santa Barbara)
Harold Marcuse homepage

created October 29, 2007, updated 11/18/09

Introduction (back to top)

• When I first created my page about the famous Martin Niemöller quotation beginning "First they came for the ..." I found an image on the website of the Monmouth, New Jersey County Human Relations Commission, which I used in the page header. They had posted it as part of their 10th anniversary celebration in December 2000.
• In April 2007 Jack Cohen-Joppa, co-editor of the Nuclear Resister, wrote the following:
  "I suspected I'd seen that particular graphic before, as a postcard published by the Syracuse Cultural Workers and looked up to be reminded that indeed, it's on the wall as a poster above our computer desk, same background, slightly altered text format, and the fine print reading:
  'Poster #p456CW [copyright] 1997 Background artwork adapted from painting by Nicholas M. Welych. Notecard and postcard available. Syracuse Cultural Workers, p.o. box 6367, Syracuse, NY 13217 USA'."
  It turns out that the Syracuse Cultural Workers still sell postcards, posters and bookmarks with the quotation, but no longer the one I found on the Monmouth site. Rather, their version comes from a 2005 poster created by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In Oct. 2007 it was not available at the USHMM online museum shop
• $14/17 poster; $2.50 notecard at Syracuse site (11/09: thanks to them for the updated link)
• So I decided to make a separate page displaying some of the images I've found on-line.

• 1951 West German peace movement poster displayed by the Berlin German Historical Museum (DHM)'s Niemoller page:
  Herausgegeben vom Magistrat von GrossßBerlin
  Martin Niemöller: "Während des Faschismus hat sich die Kirche schuldig gemacht, weil sie eine schweigende Kirche war. Sie muss jetzt alles tun, um ihre Anhänger für den Frieden zu gewinnen."
• The quotation translates as:
  "During fascism the church made itself guilty because it was a silent church. Now it has to do everything to win its constituents for peace."

• 1980s West German peace movement poster displayed by the Berlin German Historical Museum (DHM)'s Niemoller page:
  Plakat des Komittes für Frieden, Abrüstung und Zusammenarbeit
  Martin Niemöller: "Wer den Frieden will, muss mit dem Gegner gemeinsam leben wollen. Wir müssen Vertrauen wagen. Darum Schluss mit dem Rüsten."
• The quotation translates as:
  "Whoever wants peace must want to live together with their enemies. We have to risk trust. That's why the arms race must end."

• Version at the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston, dedicated in October 1995.
• NEHM Niemoller page
• Communists
  Jews
  Trade Unionists
  Catholics (Boston is a very Catholic city!)
  me

• from a 1997 poster sold by the Syracuse Cultural Workers, posted in 2000 on the website of the Monmouth, New Jersey, County Human Rights Commission website
• (see introduction, above, for more information)
• Socialists
  Trade Unionists
  Jews
  me

• from a sign carried at a 2002 peace rally in San Francisco
• Jews
  Communists
  Trade Unionists
  me

• From a July 2002 posting on RumorMillNews.com
• (By the way, just because someone said a version of the quotation during a debate in the US congress, does not make it "original" or "correct.")
• I have no idea where the rumormill author obtained this photomontage with a Hitler Youth in the background
• Jews
  Communists
  Homosexuals
  Trade Unionists

• From a Feb. 1, 2003 peace rally in Palo Alto, California: painted on a sheet and tied to a bush
• photo page
• from this 2007 Silcon Valley Green Party pictures page, it looks like the sheet was used again, and made by Carol
• Communists, Jews, Trade Unionists, Catholics, me

• German version, made in 2003 by Jürgen Patalong for his kopfsplitter.de personal website
• Communists
  Social Democrats
  Trade Unionists
  Jews
  me

• Poster available at the NorthernSun.com website: "Products for Progressives"
• Communists
  Jews
  Trade Unionists
  Catholics
  me

• March 2005 journal entry by "misfit" on online journal misfitslife.com.
• Communists
  Jews
  Trade Unionist[s]
  Catholics
  me

• 2005 version by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, available at the Syracuse Cultural Workers website
• Communists
  Trade Unionists
  Jews
  me

• Sept. 11, 2005 version in Santa Cruz, posted at the Santa Cruz independent media center site
• Jews
  Communists
  me

• ca. 2006 "Price of Silence" poster available at the ProgressivePortal.org Posters page for $19 (including shipping)
• I date this to 2006 because that was the year major debates about immigration into the US began
• Immigrants
  Teenaged Mothers
  Gays & Lesbians
  Jew, elderly, radicals, farmers, "disabled," trade unionists, poor, artists
  me

• Nov. 2006 Spanish variation in a cartoon from a blog
• The blog also has a Spanish translation directly from the German
  

  "Me lavaron el cerebro con la telebasura ... Me hicieron infinitos contratos precarios ... Me pagaban un sueldo de miseria... Me obligaban a cumplir jornadas de 14 horas... Me impidieron tener una vivienda... Me obligaron a no poder formar una familia... Me mintieron diciéndome que 'no hay futuro' ... Consentí cosas como esto de Guantánamo ..."

  They washed my brain with junk TV... They forced me to sign unending difficult contracts... They paid me a starvation wage... They forced to me to work 14 hour days... They prevented me from having a house... They kept me unable to have a family... They lied to me saying 'there is no future' ... I agree to things like those at Guantanamo...

• Communists
  Social Democrats
  Trade Unionists
  Jews
  me

• before 2009 version by the Syracuse Cultural Workers , available laminated & framed for $14-$17.
• Communists
  Trade Unionists
  Jews
  me