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  • Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis by Matthew D. Hockenos
  • Mark S. Brocker
Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis. By Matthew D. Hockenos. New York: Basic Books, 2018. 322 pp.

In 1946, in the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi period in Germany, Pastor Martin Niemöller uttered his famous confession: "First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Communist. 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." As Matthew Hockenos observes in this book, despite the fame and widespread use of this confession, the life story of the person behind it has been far less well-known. Previous biographies about Niemöller have tended to "present him in a mostly heroic light," overlooking or underplaying, for example, that Niemöller cast a ballot for the Nazis in both 1924 and 1933. [End Page 197] Hockenos offers a "revisionist biography" that "seeks neither to vilify him nor to add to the existing hagiographies, but rather to understand him and his confession and to reveal what his transformation from Nazi sympathizer to committed pacifist tells us about how and under what circumstances such reversals are possible" (3). Hockenos makes a strong case that Niemöller was an ordinary flawed human being with "far too complex a character for hero worship" (264–65); at the same time Niemöller modeled, if somewhat imperfectly, what it means to struggle with the question "Lord, what will you have me do?" and to make appropriate changes in one's life.

Hockenos structures the book in a straightforward way, dividing Niemöller's life into ten time periods. Understandably he devotes a significant portion to the Nazi period and to the decade immediately following World War II. 1933, the year Hitler came to power, merits its own chapter. Nonetheless, Hockenos does a fine job of tracking the primary influences and changes throughout Niemöller's life, from his birth in 1892 until his death in 1984. He stresses that Niemöller's "evolution was gradual, halting, and in many respects incomplete. But change he did" (264). Hockenos highlights three major changes or transformations: one, from nationalist to internationalist; two, from militarist to pacifist; and three, from racist and anti-Semite to champion of equality (5).

One of the most moving passages in this book is Hockenos' account of the role Niemöller's opening sermon played in inspiring a gathering of Protestant church leaders to issue the "Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt" on October 19, 1946. Niemöller declared that the guilt of German Protestants for German crimes was much greater than the guilt of the Nazis. Christians should have known better. He confessed that "we are guilty of having been silent when we should have spoken" (177–78).

An unexpected discovery for many readers will be how at odds Niemöller and Reinhold Niebuhr were over the Cold War. Niebuhr wondered why Niemöller was not advocating strongly for Eastern Bloc Christians to defy tyrannical Communist rulers just as he confessed German Protestants should have defied Hitler and the Nazis. [End Page 198] As Hockenos notes, Niebuhr was very concerned that Christians not "be hoodwinked when communism ceases to annihilate Christianity, but tries to merely to corrupt it" (230–31). Hockenos suggests that Niemöller's journey toward pacifism was a key factor in his hope for a peaceful resolution to the Cold War.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Hockenos for this inspiring yet balanced biography of Martin Niemöller. It models the value of seeing our faith leaders as the ordinary flawed humans they were rather than trying to make heroes out of them. An honest look at Niemöller's life and ministry can inspire us, as Hockenos concludes, "to look at our own prejudices and to try...

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