Stand Up and Speak Out

By Shannon Hembree

Stand Up and Speak Out

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/45847

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller, Protestant leader in Germany during WWII

(http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007391)

Imagine this – you are eleven years old. You wake up one day and you and others practicing your religion are beaten and arrested. You are no longer allowed to attend school, and you are forced to worship in secret. You are sent to live in a ghetto. And finally, your family is deported to a concentration camp. You are assigned to a forced-labor brigade in a different camp. That is the story of Helen Lebowitz, a Holocaust survivor. (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_oi.php?MediaId=4406).

The sad truth is, no one spoke out for Helen or the millions like her who were persecuted as part of the Nazi tyranny. Martin Niemöller’s quote reminds us that when people do not speak out, atrocities can be committed against entire populations. These populations are not just groups of anonymous faces in history books. They are made up of real people – people like you and me – each with their own story to tell.

Speaking out for other people doesn’t have to be a grand gesture on the global stage. It doesn’t have to change the whole world. It can, however, change someone’s world, and that is pretty special.

There are many ways we can speak out for others every day – in school, at work, at the mall, or elsewhere. Have you ever spoken up for someone else? It can be a really hard thing to do, especially when it means going against your friends. Have you ever had someone else speak up for you? When they do, it doesn’t necessarily turn a bad situation into a good one, but it can give you hope that things aren’t as bad as they seem in that moment.

Stand Up and Speak Out

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/911615

You can start with small steps. When you start school this September, there will no doubt be new kids there. And, as everybody knows, it is never easy to be the new kid. Why not introduce yourself or invite one of them to sit with you at lunch? Something so small can make a big difference. You don’t think so? Imagine you are standing there scanning the lunch room and wondering where to sit. There are no friendly faces, just a sea of people all talking with their own friends. Even an empty table seems more welcoming, but you don’t see any. Do you really think an invitation wouldn’t make a big difference now?

Standing up for others can be as simple as inviting a new kid to sit with you at lunch, speaking up when someone is spreading malicious gossip, or stepping in when someone is being teased. The consequences of not speaking out for others in our daily lives are nowhere near as dire as those Martin Niemöller witnessed. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to speak up when we see someone being victimized or when our conscience tells us something isn’t right.

So stand up and speak out. You won’t change the world with one gesture, but you just might change a bit of it one person at a time.

Tags: holocaust, jew, socialist, speak out, speak up, stand up, trade unionist