Pastor Niemoller National Socialism has shown itself at its worst
in the re-arrest of Pastor Niemoller by the Secret Police, immedi- ately after he had stood his trial, had been acquitted on all but minor charges, and had served the sentence to which he had been condemned. He is now in a concentration camp, with no charge against him and liable to suffer an indefinite term of imprisonment and grave physical suffering. As several letters in The Times this week have shown, even those most anxious for friendship with Germany begin to doubt if friendship is possible so long as such flagrant injustices con- tinue. It seems particularly unfortunate that Herr Ribben- trop's visit to England should have been preceded by the despatch to a concentration camp of a man whom all Europe has learned to admire. But it must be remembered that Pastor Niemoller's fate is not exceptional. He shares the suffering which, with equal injustice, has been inflicted on Thalmann, Neubauer, Miihsam, Hans Litten and a host of others ; it is to be hoped that he may be saved from it, as Ossietzky has been, by the protests of his admirers all over the world. What is significant is that the terroristic methods which previously have been reserved for Communists, Jews, Socialists, pacifists and personal enemies, should now be applied to a preacher of the Gospel whose guilt consists solely in his Christian faith and fortitude. But that faith and fortitude may, in this case as before in the history of the world, defeat the ends of injustice.
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