Over the past several years, I have been fortunate to work with the good people at the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. According to its own website, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) ‘exists so that we learn the lessons of the past to build a better future now’. The HMDT does a fantastic job raising awareness about Holocaust Memorial Day, the Holocaust, and the genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur.
While my involvement with the HMDT came about as a result of my work with Survivors Fund, I have found inspiration from the HMDT and the many resources it has made available online. I’d like to share one of the real gems that I discovered on the HMDT website … a poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller, entitled First They Came.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialist
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
The beauty of Pastor’s Niemöller’s words is their simplicity: we must work to counteract hatred and prejudice against all social groups … or one day we shall find ourselves in the firing line, with no one to defend us.
There is a PDF version of this poem on the HMDT website.
You can now follow the HMDT on Twitter: twitter.com/hmd_uk