In this episode of pplpod, we uncover the fascinating and complex history behind "First They Came" (Als sie kamen), the famous 1946 postwar confessional prose piece that condemns the complicity and silence of German intellectuals and clergy during the incremental purges of Nazi Germany.

We explore the life of its author, German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller. Niemöller was a highly complicated historical figure who initially supported Adolf Hitler, but later became a vocal opponent when the state tried to claim supremacy over religion. As a leader of the Confessing Church, Niemöller's fierce opposition to the Nazification of Protestant churches led to his 1937 arrest and years of imprisonment in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration  ...