The Pastor That Stood Up To Hitler

His name was Martin Niemoller. He had a thriving and influential position as pastor of the most well known of Berlin's Lutheran churches in the 1930's. He was a decorated war hero and former U-boat captain during WWI. He even supported Hitler when he first came to power, but broke ranks when Hitler began to persecute Christians, as well as Jews. He is often quoted, and mis-quoted, for the famous "First they came..." poem, seen above. Though it is known as a poem, in fact it was merely a snippet from one of Niemoller's sermons or speeches.
Niemoller spent several years in concentration camps for his stance opposing the Nazis, and he was known to be constantly encouraging and ministering to all who were there with him. The following quote appeared in the The National Jewish Monthly, May 1941, and is from a Jewish man who served in prison with Niemoller, Mr. Leo Stein, who was released and allowed to tell of his experiences in the concentration camps, and of his relationship with Niemoller:
IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMP
The prisoners at Moabit knew that Niemoeller was there, but his presence was not as significant as it was in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where everybody could see him. At the camp, he had more opportunity to talk to the prisoners. He did pastoral work among them, in spite of ominous warnings from the Nazi officials. He had an encouraging word for everybody, a quotation from the Bible that helped many a man through his most desperate hours. "I shall pray for you, my son," was his constant phrase. "I shall pray for you," he assured a Communist, who was being led away after having been condemned to death. "I shall pray for you," he told a young [p. 302] Jewish physician who was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment because he had been asked by a Nazi to write a memorandum on the Jewish question and send it to Hitler. Without suspecting the trap, the doctor wrote down his ideas and actually forwarded them to Hitler. He paid a heavy price for his naivete.
Niemoeller saw executions at Moabit as well as at Sachsenhausen. Once I saw tears in his eyes. A Jew, who had collapsed the day before, had hidden himself in the camp to avoid being taken to the quarry, where he would have collapsed again and been brutally beaten once more. The guards finally found him, and shot him in cold blood before us.
I saw Niemoeller trembling: in his prisoner's uniform, with his pale face, he was an impressive sight. Tears rolled down his checks, and he said--loud enough for the Nazis to hear him: "Lord, forgive them, for they don't know what they do." We were all startled, and many of us almost wept. One of the guards who had heard Niemoeller walked up to him and gave him a dirty look. "Into the barracks with you," he cried, pushing him. "Get going!"
The same guard slapped Niemoeller a few days later, taunting him: "Where is your dirty God now? Why doesn't He help you get out of this concentration camp?" A moment later he shouted: "Salute Heil Hitler!" Niemoeller stood silent. The guard slapped him again. "Salute Heil Hitler!" he roared.Niemoeller remained silent, but just then another prisoner--a Jew--stepped out of line, and the guard rushed away to beat the man to the ground. All the prisoners realized that the Jew had done that deliberately, in order to lure the brutal guard away from Niemoeller. 
Niemoller was asked what he thought were the things that led to such a thing as a whole nation coming under the influence of such dark evil. His short answer warns us to be considerate our own times:
"You see," he told me on another occasion, "Germany had lost the war; we had an alarming crisis, inflation, [end 285; p. 301] an enormous unemployment problem. Certain Russian and Polish Jews had taken refuge in Germany; the great mass of the poor and unemployed believed them to be well-to-do. Envy developed into hatred. Instead of feeling sorry for these miserable refugees, some people begrudged them the little they had. Hitler quickly stimulated these low passions, which finally brought him to power. Today, Hitler persecutes Jews and Christians alike. There isn't a single Nazi leader in the country today who has not cut himself off from the Christian faith. The so-called 'German Christians' are just heathen, who see in Hitler the Messiah; they have made him their 'Jesus Christ'." 
Niemoller went on to lead much of the movements toward repentance and reconciliation after the war and even served as President of the World Council of Churches. But his greatest achievement was that of being a great believer in a great God.