From U-boat to Pulpit

I finished reading this book a few weeks ago and although it's a departure from this blog's regular theme I still wanted to tell you about it. Since visiting Sachsenhausen I have been wanting to get hold of the book written by Martin Niemoller “From U-Boat to Pulpit”. I tracked down one English copy in Fort Wayne Indiana - a green cloth bound 1937 edition. On the flyleaf is a list of the members of the “Conference reading Circle #2 1938”. It is an amazing adventure story of the life of a German submarine captain during World War I. Reading abou tthe war from an alternative perspective is really challenging! Niemoller later went on to become a minister and whilst first siding with the Nazis in the 30’s soon realized that they looked to corrupt the church. He took a strong stand on this and for this he was jailed in Sachsenhausen and Dachau but survived. This patriotic German who served his country with so much fervour in the first world war was incarcerated by his own countrymen in the second from 1937-1945. A very brave man and author of the famous poem “First they came” (check it out as it is still so relevant today) It is worth quoting something he wrote during his u-boat days: “Is there peace anywhere? Will peace come to us – or shall we, like the Flying Dutchman, spend year after year at sea without rest or respite? And we are, as ever, faced by the eternal questions: life, the universe and God? These questions are not prompted by curiosity – they force themselves on us. All we know is that we have not found the answers to them.”