Martin Niemoller

Martin Niemöller was born on January 14, 1892, in Lippstadt, Westphalia. After serving as a German submarine commander during World War I, he studied theology in Münster and was ordained a minister of the church in Westphalia in 1924. He watched with growing concern the developing Nazi movement and the anti-Semitic rhetoric of Adolf Hitler.

In 1934, Hitler summoned Niemöller along with other German church leaders to his Berlin office to berate them for insufficiently supporting his programs. Niemöller explained that he was concerned only for the welfare of the church and of the German people. Hitler snapped, “You confine yourself to the church. I’ll take care of the German people.”

As the meeting was breaking up, Niemöller fired his final shot, “You said that ‘I will take care of the German people.’ But we too, as Christians and churchmen, have a responsibility toward the German people. That responsibility was entrusted to us by God, and neither you nor anyone in this world has the power to take it from us.”

Hitler listened in stony silence, but that evening his Gestapo raided Niemöller’s rectory, and a few days later a bomb exploded in his church. During the months and years following, he was closely watched by the secret police, and in June 1937, he preached these words to his church: “We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the apostles of old. We must obey God rather than man.” He was soon arrested and placed in solitary confinement.

Dr. Niemöller’s trial began on February 7, 1938. That morning, a green-uniformed guard escorted the minister from his prison cell and through a series of underground passages toward the courtroom. Niemöller was overcome with terror and loneliness. He was absolutely intimidated: What would become of him? Of his family? His church? What tortures awaited them all?

The guard’s face was impassive, and he was as silent as stone. But as they exited a tunnel to ascend a final flight of stairs, Niemöller heard a slight whisper. At first he didn’t know where it came from, for the voice was as soft as a sigh. Then he realized that the officer was breathing into his ear the words of Proverbs 18:10: The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.

Some of you are walking down a long hall this morning. You are heading to what seems like or could even be death. You really don’t know what lies ahead of you. You are intimidated. Can you hear Him? He’s whispering. The Holy Spirit is saying to you, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Don’t trust your circumstances, you can’t control them. Put your hope in the Lord.”