Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, Rediscovered.

Over the years, you have probably heard the following parable.

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.

Those words are displayed at the United States Holocaust Museum. Over the years, they have been quoted in moments of intolerance,

not just toward Jews, but any group or religion under siege.

The words offer a simple, haunting warning.

But the lineage of those words is more complicated.

The man who spoke them was Martin Niemuller.

He was a German Protestant pastor and a former Nazi.

As a young man, Niemuller belonged to the Academic Defense Corps, a group of right-wing students in Germany with nationalist hateful ideologies.

He believed and preached in his sermons that Germany needed a strong leader to promote national unity and honor.

You can probably guess who that leader was.

Adolf Hitler.

Niemiller cheered the rise of the National Socialist Party,

voting for Hitler and openly echoing his nationalistic, pro-Christian exclusionary rhetoric.

But Niemwler grew concern that Nazis were politicizing the church, excluding non-Aryans.

In 1934, he and two Protestant bishops met with Hitler to discuss their concerns.

According to the Holocaust Museum, it was at that meeting that he realized that Gestapo

had tapped his phone. After the meeting, the two bishops signed a statement of unconditional

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