"First They Came for the Communists"

The poem by Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who opposed Hitler yet survived concentration camps, was written in response to the question: "How could it happen?"

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 8 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Night, First They Came for the Communists, Terrible Things, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Diary of a Young Girl, Elie Wiesel Speech, Do Something!, Wangari Maathai, Freerice.com, Public Service Announcements, Famine as a Weapon
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Nazi
    a German member of Adolf Hitler's political party
    When the Nazis came for the communists
  2. remain
    continue in a place, position, or situation
    I remained silent
  3. communist
    a socialist in favor of collectivism in a classless society
    I was not a communist.
  4. social democracy
    the belief in a gradual transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means
    When they locked up the social democrats
  5. silent
    failing to speak or communicate etc when expected to
    I remained silent
  6. trade union
    an employee organization that bargains with an employer
    When they came for the trade unionists
  7. speak out
    express one's opinion openly and without fear or hesitation
    I did not speak out
  8. Jew
    member of a community whose traditional religion is Judaism
    When they came for the Jews,
    I did not speak out
  9. left
    not used up
    When they came for me,
    there was no one left to speak out.
Created on Mon Dec 15 15:35:33 EST 2014 (updated Tue Sep 15 13:07:26 EDT 2015)

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