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.

 References 

Category:Nazi Germany
Category:20th-century poems
Category:1946 works
Category:German literature

de:Martin Niemöller#Zitat