By Sam Kestenbaum October 18, 2016

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Socialist,” opens the famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller, describing the the Nazis’ rise to power and the targeting of minority groups, one after the other.

“Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me,” continues the poem, which has come to symbolize the price of indifference in the face of fascism.

Now Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, thinks he is also being persecuted and that no one is speaking up for him.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

On the Wikileaks online shop you can even buy T-Shirts emblazoned with an augmented reference to the famous Neimoller poem — “First they came for Assange” — and a picture of Assange. A kitten sits on his shoulder.

The shirt costs $25 dollars, comes in multiple colors — and it’s apparently popular.

“This is our best seller for a reason,” the product description reads. “Relaxed, tailored and ultra-comfortable, you’ll love the way you look in this durable, reliable classic.”

“Four years after Julian Assange passed through the gates of the Ecuador Embassy in London, asking for asylum, people from all over the world join their voices in order to ask that this unbelievable persecution is brought to an end,” the site reads.

What may strike some as ironic about the Holocaust reference is that since gaining international attention in 2010 with the release of nearly 100,000 classified logs of the war in Iraq, Wikileaks — and particularly Assange — has repeatedly come under fire for anti-Semitism.

The organization has employed a Holocaust denier and tweeted anti-Semitic jibes. Assange has also suggested that Jewish journalists target him specifically for critical coverage.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount