Help me identify this quote/saying!!

[susie426]

Has anyone heard of a quote or saying that says something about not becoming involved in several domestic or global conflicts (like abuse, racism, holocaust) but then when you needed someone to stand for you there was no one (because essentially you did not stand up for someone else)??? (I think the last line went something like “but there was no one to stand for me”)

I’ve looked on several quotation search engines on the net, but came up blank. The general idea is all I have to refer to because I saw it in print in a former colleague’s office a couple years ago, but I can’t remember the source/author of it or the exact wording. Any help or clues?? Thanks!

[Mr.Blue_Sky]

I found the original quote here, but I’m sure you can find it many other places. It has been modified since then.

In Germany, the Nazis first 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 trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but 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 for me.

That text appears in several slightly varying forms but is always attributed to the Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöeller (1892-1984), who was several times jailed by Hitler in the mid-thirties, then spent eight years in Sachenhausen and Dachau.

[susie426]

Thanks blue sky!!! That was fast! And, it was exactly what I was looking for. Mystery solved. :wally

[GorillaMan]

Pasto Niemöller

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.

You’ll find other version of the quotation, altered to remove the Communists, or emphasise the Jews, or to make the whole thing religious, or…or…you get the idea.

[Ten_21_14]

If you use google and search for (using quotes): “first they came for” you will find several versions. As Mr. Blue Sky points out, it’s been modified many times.

[GorillaMan]

LOL, while typing that, Mr. Blue Sky proved there’s plenty of variations!

[susie426]

THanks all! BTW: I’M the putz cuz I was searching for an hour for that thing on google, and msn, and like 4 other search engines…goes to show you how important having the “right” keywords are.

[tygerbryght]

@Mr. Blue Sky

I found the original quote here, but I’m sure you can find it many other places. It has been modified since then.

That text appears in several slightly varying forms but is always attributed to the Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöeller (1892-1984), who was several times jailed by Hitler in the mid-thirties, then spent eight years in Sachenhausen and Dachau.

Here’s an essay about the correct phrasing. Another researcher on Niemöeller is Harold Marcuse, grandson of the famous Herbert Marcuse. Harold Marcuse’s Niemöeller page is here.

Like both of the scholars cited above, I have a preference for knowing the original, correct version. However, I also find the version that Mr. Blue Sky linked to powerful - and something that should stir the hearts of everyone who reads it. Sure, the current administration is “Christian”, but it has also displayed an enormous lack of tolerance for dissent.