First they came...

The poem First they came... was written by Martin Niemöller. It is a criticism of the way people in Nazi Germany did not stop the Nazi Party from treating other people poorly.

The poem is as follows:

First they came for the Communists,

and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn’t speak up,

because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,

and by that time there was no one

left to speak up for me.

First They Came... Media

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  Engraving of the confession in poetic form presented at the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts

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  Niemöller at The Hague's Grote Kerk in May 1952

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  A US Navy chaplain reads an excerpt of Niemöller's poem during a Holocaust Days of Remembrance observance service in Pearl Harbor; 27 April 2009.