Fascist movements came to the forefront of European politics in the 1920s through the 1940s as fascism gained traction in several places across the continent. Fascism was most famously employed by Benito Mussolini, head of Italy’s National Fascist Party, and by Adolf Hitler, head of the German Nazi Party. A political philosophy and mass movement, fascism is usually characterized by militant nationalism, anti-democratic structures of power, conservative values, and strict social hierarchies. In short, fascist governments are authoritarian right-wing regimes led by all-powerful dictators. In exchange for total allegiance, these governments claim to offer their citizens lasting prosperity and peace.

In “First they came…” the speaker witnesses the effects of these hierarchies firsthand. The Nazis believed that variations from the Nazi definition of an “ideal person,” including religious, ethnic, and racial differences, were direct threats to those at the highest level of hierarchy. Fascists protected those ideal citizens by eliminating what they believed were the undesirable “others.” Liberal values, pluralism, and coexistence all threaten the total power of the state, and so in fascist societies, they are punished to the extreme. The socialists, who abide by a different political philosophy, are done away with. The trade unionists, who abide by a different economic philosophy, likewise eliminated.