... fascism...

[Michael Pollak]

On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> Excellent sentiment, but I doubt Niemoeller ever said it, given his
> politics.  Several attempts to source the quote haven't worked.

Peter Novick cites "Martin Niemoeller, Activist as Bystander: The Oft
Quoted Reflection" in Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer, eds.
_Jewish-Christian Encounters over the Centuries_ (New York, 1994)

One of the things about this quote is that it seems that almost everyone
who uses it (at least in America) changes it -- not only as a parallelism,
as Charles did (although that's been popular too) but also changing the
original to better accord with what they think he should have said --
moving Jews from last to first, omitting the communists, adding Catholics
and homosexuals, etc, depending on political context.

Michael

__________________________________________________________________________
Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com