# That quote about 'they came for the..' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937 "2002-03-18T21:46:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/1 "2002-03-18T21:46:13Z")
Could somebody please tell me about the quote where it goes on about them coming for X, but I wasn’t an X, then they came for Y, but I wasn’t a Y, etc… ? I would like to know what the actual quote is, and who wrote/said it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/2 "2002-03-18T21:57:19Z")
_**First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.**_ Pastor Martin Niemöller ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/3 "2002-03-18T22:29:06Z")
[Quoteland.com](http://Quoteland.com) gives the quote slightly differently: “In Germany, they 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 and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Catholic. Then they came for me – and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.” -Martin Niemöller However, I seem to recall that there was some controversy about whether Niemöller actually first said this or whether he simply took the credit. I’ll see if I can’t track it down ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/4 "2002-03-18T23:04:51Z")
Here’s what I’ve found: > [@](#): > > **Pastor Martin Niemoller** > > First 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 for me. > > _Source: Attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller, as stated in Franklin H. Littell’s forward to Exile in the Fatherland, Martin Niemoller’s Letters from Moabit Prison, edited by Hubert G. Locke (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1986), p. viii._ I obtained this from [this page](http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/right.htm), the FAQ of the [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum](http://www.ushmm.org). Personally, I found the following quote much more chilling than the above. At the museum, it’s on the wall in a room containing a very upsetting number of shoes, piled quite deep: > [@](#): > > **Moishe Shulstein > _I Saw a Mountain_** > > We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses. > We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers, > From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam, > And because we are only made of fabric and leather > And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire. > > _Source: Translated by Beatrice Stadtler and Mindele Wajsman in From Holocaust to New Life, edited by Michael Berenbaum (New York: The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, 1985), p. 121._ ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/5 "2002-03-18T23:21:20Z")
Thanks to all who responded. [OT] **Max Torque,** I remember seeing the piles of shoes at Birkenau/Auschwitz. They definitely make you stop and think, don’t they. The mind boggles and sometimes is numbed by the numbers, but things like shoes or other personal belongings can really bring the tragedy back to the basics. Never again, I hope. [/OT] ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/6 "2002-03-19T00:30:42Z")
There’s an interesting discussion about the quote on this site: [http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk/pa09/europetrip/brussels/neimoller.htm#quote](http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk/pa09/europetrip/brussels/neimoller.htm#quote) > [@](#): > > Everbody loves to quote Martin Niemöller’s lines about moral failure in the face of the Holocaust… But interestingly, people use the quotation to imply different meanings – even altering it to suit their purpose. When Time magazine used the quotation, they moved the Jews to the first place and dropped both the communists and the social democrats. American Vice-President Al Gore likes the to quote the lines, but drops the trade unionists for good measure. Gore and Time also added Roman Catholics, who weren’t on Niemöller’s list at all. In the heavily Catholic city of Boston, Catholics were added to the quotation inscribed on its Holocaust memorial. The US Holocaust Museum drops the Communists but not the Social Democrats; other versions have added homosexuals. Part of this confusion was created by Niemoller himself who apparently often used slightly different versions of the quote at different public speaking events. The earliest reference I can find to the quote is from this site [http://www.wathena406.k12.ks.us/clarkson/Lesson%20Plans/niemoller.htm](http://www.wathena406.k12.ks.us/clarkson/Lesson%20Plans/niemoller.htm) that says > [@](#): > > The following is the Declaration of Guilt presented to the Council of the Evangelical Church by Pastor Martin Niemoller in Ocober of 1945. > In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, > And I didn’t speak up > Because I was not a Communist. > Then they came for the Jews, > And I did not speak up > Because I was not 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, > And I was a Protestant > So I didn’t speak up. > Then they came for ME… > By that time > There was no one to speak up for anyone. > To make sure this doesn’t happen again, the injustice > To anyone > Anywhere > Must be the concern of > Everyone > Everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-quote-about-they-came-for-the/98937/7 "2002-03-19T01:58:54Z")
Here’s a source that could be verified by someone ambitious enough. From [this site](http://serendipity.magnet.ch/cda/niemoll.html) > [@](#): > > … the exact text of what Martin Niemöller said, and which appears in the Congressional Record, 14, October 1968, page 31636, is: > > When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.