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And Then They Came For Me

This exhibition examines a dark episode in U.

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Executive Order , signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, , set in motion the forced removal and imprisonment of all people of Japanese ancestry living on or near the West Coast. During this 75 th anniversary year of the executive order, we look back at this shameful past to learn lessons for our present and future in the face of new challenges encouraged by fearmongering and racism at the highest levels of government. Then They Came for Me presents this historical event from multiple perspectives. Drawing upon the powerful images culled from the book Un-American: These photographers were hired by the U.

The JASC and a number of collectors from the Chicago area have generously lent art, objects, documents and other historical materials that provide glimpses into the personal experiences of those who were incarcerated. Highlights include ID cards and tags, anti-Japanese propaganda, suitcases, diaries, handmade furniture, wood carvings and other works of art, high school yearbooks and newsletters produced by camp inmates, military accoutrements, indefinite leave clearances, materials related to resettlement in Chicago and eventual redress and reparation.

Specially compiled video testimonies by former inmates, their family members and community leaders are installed throughout the exhibition. And the new documentary film And Then They Came for Us by Abby Ginzberg and Ken Schneider, screened daily, makes explicit connections between the Japanese American incarceration story and current concerns with regard to the treatment of Muslims and Muslim Americans. Photo historian and co-author of the book Un-American: Photo by James Prinz. The Oral History Studio is a private space within the gallery where visitors are invited to record their personal stories or reflections.

An Alphawood Gallery staff member is available to interview visitors who are willing to share their histories and thoughts related to the themes and questions posed by Then They Came for Me. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Order of the Day. Editorial Reviews Review "[A] clear-eyed biography Hockenos's portrait sheds valuable light on a man and a society willing to overlook the sins of a leader whose interests initially seemed to dovetail with their own.

Combining historical empathy with honest critical analysis, Hockenos masterfully demonstrates how a deeply flawed religious activist challenged an authoritarian political leader and changed the course of history. As Matthew Hockenos shows in this penetrating and fast-paced biography, he was also an ardent early supporter of Hitler.

By showing how strongly Niemoeller identified the Nazi regime with Germany's spiritual as well as political rebirth, Hockenos asks us to rethink what we understand about the nature of consent and opposition in Nazi Germany. The complex, if 'ordinary,' Niemoller merits a superb biography, and now has it.

First They Came For The Jews Poem by Martin Niemöller - Poem Hunter

He put God above Germany even though it was the same God who had cursed the Jews. In many ways, he was 'too German' and 'too Lutheran'--even in a concentration camp for the dissidence of his sermons, Niemoller volunteered to fight in Hitler's army. Hockenos makes sense of these jarring contradictions, portraying a remarkable, self-critical man in a highly readable but also critical biography.

Readers will turn the pages of this book just as history turned the pages of Niemoller's life. The author of A Church Divided: Product details File Size: Basic Books; 1 edition September 18, Publication Date: September 18, Sold by: Hachette Book Group Language: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 3 reviews.

Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. This is unswervingly honest story about a man who was far from perfect but who grew to have his heart in the right place. This is not a hagiography but a straight shooting story by a noble historian. What I perhaps most liked about this book was opening up the realities of German pastors and the German church situation after the war.

Yet, following his military service he became a pastor with unusual passion; he defied Hitler's crossing the line between church and state; he defied the "German Christian" movement with its blending of church and state in blasphemous ways; he was arrested by Hitler for opposing Hitler's imposition in the church; he was released from prison only to become Hitler's personal prisoner -- in Sachsenhausen and then Dachau; he was imprisoned most of a decade.

The two enjoyed kidding each other, especially over their respective approaches to theology. Take Karl Barth, my dearest friend. All his volumes are standing there. I have never read any of them. I never heard a lecture by him.

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Theologians are here only to make incomprehensible what a child can understand. The tension between Hitler's German Christians and the Confessing Church and not all here were alike, as some were much more amenable to Hitler than others , and this story expresses that tension: One Sunday a conflict arose between opposing pastors and their flocks over which group had the right to use the church. Both sides claimed possession by occupying strategic areas of the building.

The German Christian pastor, Gerhard Peters, stood in front of the altar as his supporters arrayed themselves in the front pews. The opposition pastor, Eitel-Friedrich von Rabenau, held the pulpit while his followers piled into the rear pews. From the loft, a trombone choir accompanied opposition parishioners singing Advent hymns; from the same location, with gusto, the organist accompanied the German Christians singing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.

Editorial Reviews

Cries of "We want to hear Rabenau's sermon! The row lasted two long hours, with parishioners nearly coming to blows. Eventually Rabenau conceded the church to the German Christians and left the building with his following While in prison he became an American Christian pet project and America's saw him as a personal agenda -- get him released and he will become the heroic model of the Christian persecuted under Hitler.

Insisting that most Germans were ignorant of the scale of Nazi atrocities and shocked by what they saw when the Allies liberated the concentration and extermination camps, he asserted, "You are mistaken if you think any honest person in Germany will feel personally responsible for things like Dachau, Belsen, and Buchenwald. He will feel only misled into believing in a regime that was led by criminals and murderers.

First They Came... (If this doesn't wake you up - nothing will!)

But he never convinced many of his integrity; he was always a big question mark for many. His first instincts to major situations were too nationalistic, too German, too undemocratic, and too unChristian. Yet, the man changed his mind over and over. He was the first to speak publicly from the German pastoral community in terms and tones of confession; that the German people bore guilt; that the pastors did not speak against Hitler enough or clearly enough or often enough. While fighting denazification he started to open his mind on demilitarization of Germany which cut against the grain of Germany's renewed fears of Stalinist Russia ; he saw good in the churches of Russia; he began to fight for peace in Gandhian terms; he gradually became a pacifist; and he eventually became a thorough-going progressive for peace in all categories.

Yet, he was blind to dimensions of racism, like white privilege, and yet grew and worked against his prejudices.


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Some people, not that many and Bonhoeffer was one, have clarity of mind into deep socio-political and theologically-informed issues -- like Nazis, like war, like racism, like militarization -- early and stay the course. Speaking of Bonhoeffer, how about this little-known fact? He twice waded through the New Testament in Greek, perhaps reviving fond memories of his gymnasium days and reading Greek poetry for fun. He received a copy of Bonhoeffer s now-famous text Discipleship with an inscription from his colleague: A book that he himself could have written better than the author.

Any reading of this book will help pastors especially to become more patient with themselves and with others, and perhaps encourage them to tell their own stories honestly -- stories of growth and changing course.