Question

No link please

In 1933, Martin Niemöller, a leader of the Confessing Church, voted for the Nazi Party. By 1938, he was in a concentration
camp. After the war, he is believed to have said, “In Germany, the Nazis came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came fo
the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't spea
up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me. How is the
point Niemöller makes similar to the one that the poet Maurice Ogden makes in "The Hangman?

Answer 1

Both Niemöller and Ogden are criticizing the silent bystander that allows injustice to happen only until it affects him and then realizes that there´s no one there to stand up for him.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ogden´s poem tells the story of a town that allows a mysterious hangman to kill people in the name of justice without much explanation. By the end of the poem, the hangman explains that all he did was what people allowed him to do. In the same way, Niemöller´s words are those of someone who realized too late that his silence was a form of complicity.