from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Ed note: Martin Niemöller is best known for writing First They Came, but he is a complicated figure. Initially an antisemitic Nazi supporter, his views changed when he was imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against Nazi control of churches. From Wikipedia: “Niemöller was arrested on 1 July 1937. On 2 March 1938, he was tried by a “Special Court” for activities against the state. He was given Sonder- und Ehrenhaft status (‘special or honourable detention’). He received a 2,000 Reichsmark fine and seven months’ imprisonment. But as he had been detained pre-trial for longer than the seven-month jail term, he was released by the court after sentencing. However, he was immediately rearrested by Himmler‘s Gestapo – presumably because Rudolf Hess found the sentence too lenient and decided to take “merciless action” against him.[14] He was interned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for “protective custody” from 1938 to 1945.[21]“