I’m sick of repeating Rev. Niemoller’s “First they came for the Socialists but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Socialist …” quote because it’s been quoted ad nauseum in the past year and no one seems to give a damn. Well, they SAID they give one, but then they stood by and are standing by as “they” come after Muslims, gays, women, minorities, etc. and even elected, encouraged the election and/or allowed to be elected the demagogue who promised to go after the “others” in spades. It’s a great quote, but it doesn’t seem to be changing anyone’s heart or behavior?
Instead, we need to put faces on “those people” so folks can see that this is not an abstract concept. The kind of policies 45 pushed on us in the last two days – policies he told us he was going to enact and people STILL let him come to power – are not new. They’ve been tried before and innocent people suffered and died.
Little Joachim Hirsch was one of them. He was one of 937 passengers on the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees trying to escape the Nazis in 1939. The ship was turned away at many ports of entry – including Miami. The ship eventually had no place else to go and returned to Germany.
Joachim was later sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered.
Joachim was a little boy. He was someone’s child. He could have grown up and become someone’s husband and father and had an interesting life and fulfilling job and fun hobbies. But the Nazis murdered him because we turned our backs on him and turned him away.
That was wrong then. It is wrong now.
Today more than one little boy and little girl had their chance at a life slip away – no, SNATCHED away – by a cruel, callous and unstable demagogue, his henchpeople, his callous enablers, and his silent, frightened bitter supporters.
Joachim was not a number or a statistic or one of the nameless, faceless Jews that they came for and no one spoke up. He had a name and a family and a future that was taken away from him.
Look at this little boy’s face. Think about what “they” did to him. And then remember that “they” were US. WE turned him away. And today, WE are turning away little boys and girls just like him. WE, not THEY.
WE can stop this madness. WE must stop it. WE are better than this.
We really are.