holocaust museum 2

first they came for the communists, and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a communist.

then they came for the trade unionists, and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a trade unionist.

then they came for the jews, and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a jew.

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

- martin niemöller

six decades later we enshrine the lessons of the kristallnacht in our books and our rhetoric, and sometimes prefer to forget that political and intellectual apathy flourish anew in fresh guises.