first they came for the communists

8/4/2019 First They Came for the Communists...

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First they came for the Communists, and I didnt speak up, because I wasnt a Communist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didnt speak up, because I wasnt a Trade

Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didnt speak up, because I wasnt a Jew,

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

-Pastor Martin Niemoller

A Little Known Story: First they came for the

Communists

By B.J. Murphy

August 20, 2010

Many during the 1950s that lived in the Land of the Free feared not the idea of Communism

altogether, but the idea of what may happen to those that were found to have been a Communist.As the years increased, the paranoia against Communism decreased as if the event during the

1950s never happened. Though, it remains a part of history that is forever remembered upon bymany, and some to this day that still acts upon the mindset of those anti-Communists in the 50s.

Such figures like Glenn Beck, a popular Fox News caster by the conservative right-wing, are

ones that seem to be bringing the 50s back, or at least the mindset that took place then, with such

claims that the backing of social-justice is nothing more than the backing of Nazi-Communism. [1] This misleading statement has been the very slogan well-used by Beck and his

followers against those who of today continue to fight for social-justice and workers rights

under the Communist banner.

Becks equating of Communism with what took place during Nazi Germany is not onlymisleading, but is completely disregarding a sad, long, and painful past of those Communists that

suffered by the hands of the Hitler-led Nazi forces.

The Nazi Coup and Coming for the Communists

On February 27, 1933, the arson attack on the Reichstag building led a full scale inquiry on who

exactly was behind such an act.

This led to the arrest of a Council Communist known as Marinus van der Lubbe. Because of thisarrest, Hitler took this as a Communist conspiracy to try and overthrow the German

government. And so, because of the growing anti-Communist paranoia, Hitler urged then-President Paul von Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree to counter any attacks by theCommunist Party of Germany, leading to mass arrests of Communists and those that were of the

parliamentary delegates. Because of such actions, this allowed Hitler to consolidate power over

the German government and allow the Nazi forces to become the leading army of Germany. [2]

Now, whether Van der Lubbe was behind the Reichstag fire or not is still open for debate. Itwould seem that he was most definitely part of the reason, but whether he was on his own or not


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is what many remain divided on. Since 1998, a law was passed that allowed the pardons of those

that were convicted by the Nazis. Though, since 1998, Van der Lubbe was yet to have been

exonerated from his crime committed on 1933. It wasnt until 2008 when Van der Lubbe wasfinally exonerated from said crime. [3]

Of course today, when we celebrate the destruction of

the concentration camps and the survival of theJewish people, we fail to include all those else who

had survived, and those who had died within these

same camps. Such people were the Communists. In

March of 1933, the first camp in Germany wascreated in Dachau. A press statement on this

development was released, stating:

On Wednesday the first concentration camp

is to be opened in Dachau with anaccommodation for 5000 persons. All

Communists and where necessary

Reichsbanner and Social Democraticfunctionaries who endanger state security are

to be concentrated here [4]

Because of the fear and realization of these camps inGermany a jingle came about to support both fear and

realization of Dachau:

Dear God, make me dumb, That I may not to Dachau come. [5]

Dachau was one of the first of the Nazi concentration camps that were built in the 1930s. Laterthe system was expanded, first to hold German Jews, then by the creation of Nazi extermination

camps in occupied countries of the East. The poem says First they came for the communists

because the camps were developed in order to round up known German Communists who wereseen as the most die-hard opponents of the Nazi takeover.

In Dachau, communists were ordered to grovel and beg for their lives and renounce their

beliefs in order to be released. Those who resisted were beaten and even killed. Leaders werehumiliated, and key figures like Ernst Thaelman were never released, and many died in Nazi

prisons. Later after 1939, when Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, captured Communist Party

members were often executed. And many Soviet prisoners of war (POW) died in forced labor,

starvation and diseases in the Nazi camps.

The story of those German communists seized and brutalized in 1933 is often unknown today.

Take Hans Beimler for example. A staunch anti-fascist Communist who fought with the

International Brigades in support of the Spanish Republic against the fascist Franco regimeduring the Spanish Civil War. Before he found himself in Spain fighting for Spanish liberation,

he was fighting for his own liberation when he was arrested and detained in Dachau in April

Bodies found on the Dachau death train


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1933. Though, he managed to escape the prison by strangling his SA guard and escaping in his

uniform. [6]

Jack Werbe wrote a book on his personal experience within the Nazi concentration camps. Hereports that in 1942, he had met a German Jewish Communist, by the name of Emil Carlebach,

who had asked him to join the Buchenwald International Underground an anti-fascist militant

group. He explained Carlebachs time in Dachau when arrested in 1933 [7], and then his latersentences as well over the years. Carlebach remained a soldier in the war against Nazi Germany,

and eventually died on April 9, 2001.

Alfred Haag, although he was originally sentenced to the concentration camp Oberer Kuhberg,

found himself being transferred to Dachau during the summer of 1935. Even while he was in thecamp, he was defiant to the end for the oppressed, where an SS guard ordered him to bump off a

subordinate prisoner, in which Haag replies, You cant order me something like this! [8] He

was even known within Dachau to be the one who secretly collected bread for his fellow

prisoners. He was eventually caught and then transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp.From there, he was eventually released by the sheer bravery for his liberation by his own wife.

[9]

In September of 1942, Adolf Maislinger was transferred from a Gestapo prison cell in Munich to

the Dachau concentration camp. Inside, he, along with his other comrades, helped supply food

and supplies for fellow prisoners. He became well respected within Dachau, where a formerFrench prisoner, Edmond Michelet, ended up writing about Maislinger in his bookFreedom

Road:

I have known no better than Addie Capo [Adolf Maislinger] This active Munich

communist radiated a Franciscan clemency. Sitting in his window, he played harmonica.The slow modulation of a song by Schubert morning rocked our hope. [10]

Though, tensions began arising in Dachau with word that the Americans were on their way to the

camp. And so, led by Maislinger, plans were being developed where, no matter what, whether

the guards started firing at them or not, they were going to charge at the gates of Dachau andfight for their liberation. Thankfully, before the charge was to be initiated, the Americans made it

to the Dachau camp and everyone held as prisoner inside was released, including Adolf

Maislinger. [11]

There are many more stories that are needing to be heard, and even more that will never be

heard. Millions of Communist POWs were ridiculed, tortured, and killed within these

concentration camps. Like when the Jewish people were identified with yellow stars, the

Communists were identified through red stars. [12] This became nothing more, like the Jews,than a genocidal attack against the Communists. Its been reported that, out of all Soviet POWs

that were held as prisoners, around 57% didnt make it by the end of the war. [13]

Starvation was a well used tactic within the concentration camps against Soviet POWs.According to a Soviet report in 1944, 43,000 captured Red Army personnel were either killed or

died from diseases and starvation. [14] Although Red Cross packages were available for those

starving prisoners, all allied officers were refused to share such packages to those starving. [15]


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And in order to rid themselves from these diseased starving prisoners, officers were ordered for

all sick inmates to be shot once a week. [16]

It was reported that in the Buchenwaldcamp, around 8,000 Soviet POWs were

executed. Of course, these executions

were made solely because of Sovietresistance against the Nazi regime. Rudolf

Hss, the former Commandant of

Auschwitz, spoke clearly on the reasoning

behind the executions of Soviet prisoners,though he seemed to have been in favor

for said executions in the first place:

The reason for this action was given as

follows: the Russians were murdering anyGerman soldier who was a member of the

Nazi party, especially SS members. Also,

the political section of the Red Army had astanding order to cause unrest in every way

in any POW camp or places where the

POWs worked. If they were caught or imprisoned, they were instructed to perform acts ofsabotage. [17]

The conditions these POWs went through was horrendous. Very little shelter was given to the

prisoners, and very little food and supplies were provided as well. There were known accounts of

Soviet prisoners digging up holes in the ground in order to be used as improvised shelter.Though, by the end of 1941, epidemics began emerging as the leading cause of death. In which it

was said that, by October 1941, ..almost 5,000 Soviet POWs died each day. [18]

By the end of the war, it was reported that around 3.3 3.5 million Communists were killed

within the camps. [19]

This leaves the Communists being the second largest group targeted during the Nazi Holocaust,

with the Jewish people as the number one targeted group (with around 6 million dead). Though,according to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, if you included all those killed in the

concentration camps and all those Communists killed during the war, youll find the statistics of

all Communists killed during the Holocaust at around 8.2 million, leaving the Communists asbeing the number one victim by the Nazi regime. [20]

I dont want people to get the idea that I dont respect, nor honor all those that died during the

Holocaust other than the Communists. We must all realize that it wasnt just the Jews and

Communists that were killed, but also the disabled, the Roma people (so-called Gypsies), andhomosexuals. We all faced the horrors within the concentration camps. Some got away, and

others werent so lucky.

In 1944, 43,000 captured Red Army personnel were either killed

or died from diseases and starvation.


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The Dachau camp was created as a prototype for the future camps that were made. Those that

died in Dachau were prototyped POWs for the future deaths of millions more. When you see the

eyes of a Jew, you see the eyes of a Communist. For we all suffered equally. Like the quoteprovided above by Pastor Martin Niemoller says, we may not be one of the others, but our voices

for all those persecuted and oppressed should be the most important voice of all. That should be

the moral that we must all abide by.

Red Love & Salutes!

[1] Beck: Nazis and communists both backed social justice, Media Matters, March 2, 2010.

[2] Reichstag Fire: Nazi Germany, Spartacus Educational.

[3] Kate Connolly, 75 years on, executed Reichstag arsonist finally wins pardon, The

Guardian, January 12, 2008.

[4] The Dachau Gas Chambers Photograph 2, Holocaust History.

[5] German Reactions to Nazi Atrocities, JSTOR.

[6] Hans Beimler (Communist), Wikipedia.

[7] Werber, John. I Join the Underground. Saving Children: Diary of a Buchenwald Survivorand Rescuer. Transaction, 1996. 73. Print.

[8] Alfred Haag, Zum Beispiel Dachau.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Adolf Maislinger, Zum Beispiel Dachau.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Doris Bergen, Nazi Ideology and the Camp System, PBS.

[13] Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

[14] Strods, Heinrihs (2000). Salaspils koncentrcijas nometne (1944. gada oktobris 1944.gada septembris. Yearbook of the Occupation Museum of Latvia 2000: pp. 87153.

[15] Soviet Prisoners of War: Forgotten Nazi Victims of World War II, History Net.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Execution of Soviet POWs at Buchenwald, Scrapbook Pages.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003020048http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERreichstagF.htmhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jan/12/secondworldwar.germanyhttp://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/photo.cgi?02http://www.jstor.org/pss/2770938?cookieSet=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Beimler_%28Communist%29http://books.google.com/books?id=vVY-nAkG-csC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=Emil+Carlebach+Barrack+22&source=bl&ots=qfbdPotv1X&sig=06SzUT2OGlZ_x564mKZ-63O5n0I&hl=en&ei=lxhuTOTjK4K0lQek_82FDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Emil%20Carlebach%20Barrack%2022&f=falsehttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/eng/haag.htmhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/eng/haag.htmhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/ger/maisling.htmhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/ger/maisling.htmhttp://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/40-45/background/ideology.htmlhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaspils#World_War_IIhttp://www.historynet.com/soviet-prisoners-of-war-forgotten-nazi-victims-of-world-war-ii.htmhttp://www.historynet.com/soviet-prisoners-of-war-forgotten-nazi-victims-of-world-war-ii.htmhttp://www.scrapbookpages.com/Buchenwald/Atrocities2.htmlhttp://www.scrapbookpages.com/Buchenwald/Atrocities2.htmlhttp://www.historynet.com/soviet-prisoners-of-war-forgotten-nazi-victims-of-world-war-ii.htmhttp://www.historynet.com/soviet-prisoners-of-war-forgotten-nazi-victims-of-world-war-ii.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaspils#World_War_IIhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/40-45/background/ideology.htmlhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/ger/maisling.htmhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/ger/maisling.htmhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/eng/haag.htmhttp://www.zbdachau.de/fates/eng/haag.htmhttp://books.google.com/books?id=vVY-nAkG-csC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=Emil+Carlebach+Barrack+22&source=bl&ots=qfbdPotv1X&sig=06SzUT2OGlZ_x564mKZ-63O5n0I&hl=en&ei=lxhuTOTjK4K0lQek_82FDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Emil%20Carlebach%20Barrack%2022&f=falsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Beimler_%28Communist%29http://www.jstor.org/pss/2770938?cookieSet=1http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/photo.cgi?02http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jan/12/secondworldwar.germanyhttp://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERreichstagF.htmhttp://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003020048


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[18] The Treatment of Soviet POWs: Starvation, Disease, and Shootings, June 1941 January

1942, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

[19] Ibid.

[20] A Mosaic of Victims- Non Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. Ed. by Michael

Berenbaum New York University Press 1990
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007183http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007183http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims#Soviet_Slavs_and_POWshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims#Soviet_Slavs_and_POWshttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007183http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007183

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