First They Came For The Communists Analysis

The three authors of the following stories I read which was “Terrible Things, “First They Came For The Communists”, and “Night” excerpt have many similarities and differences and all develop a common theme. All three of these stories have been dealt with or connected with the brutal murder and genocide of the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and etc. in Europe by the Nazis during the 1930’s and 1940’s which is today known as the Holocaust. Each story consist of an antagonist which represents the Nazis and protagonists representing the groups of people that were executed by Hitler and the Nazis such as, the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and more. One common theme that is found throughout the three texts is to always stand up, speak out loud, and
In “First They Came for the Communists”, it was about how the Nazis came and captured the Communists, social democrats, trade unionists, Jews, and the narrator by no one ever speaking out. In the poem “First They Came for the Communists” by Martin Niemöller states, “When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out”(Niemöller pg. 188). This evidence shows that when the Nazis came for the Jews, the narrator didn’t speak out at all and afterwards, when the Nazis came for the narrator, there wasn’t anyone to speak out for him. This also shows that the narrator had plenty of opportunities to speak out but, didn’t do
The theme is to be that person to stand out and speak up for a cause and always persuade someone to listen to you and stand by your side in bad times. In the allegory “Terrible Things” by Eve Bunting states, “When they had all gone Little Rabbit crept into the middle of the empty clearing. I should have tried to help the other rabbits, he thought. If only we creatures had stuck together, it could have been different. Sadly, Little Rabbit left the clearing. He’d go tell other forest creatures about the Terrible Things. He hoped someone would listen.” This evidence shows that the Little Rabbit didn’t stand up or even spoke out in a time when the other rabbit’s were in extreme danger and didn’t even bother to convince any of the other rabbits to listen. Also, the Little Rabbit and the other rabbits didn’t have a plan so therefore, they didn’t stick