Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany.

As the Nazis rose to power in the 1920s and 1930s, Niemöller sympathized with many of their ideas and supported their radical right-wing political movements. However, after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he became an outspoken critic of Hitler’s interference in the Protestant Church. He spent the last 8 years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in Nazi prisons and concentration camps.

Niemöller is best remembered for his postwar statement, often misattributed as a poem, which begins “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…”

Niemöller and his statement are part of the permanent exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since its opening in 1993. His powerful words serve as an indictment of those who remained passive and indifferent during the Holocaust.

On social media, a new version of that statement is circulating of how it might sound when applied to what is currently happening in the United States under Donald Trump and a paralyzed, complicit, enabling, negligent, and cowardly Republican Congress, including North Dakota’s US Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R), US Sen. Kevin Cramer (R), and US Sen. John Hoeven (R):

The New Version of First They Came For …

First they came for the migrants, and I did not speak out —
because I am not a migrant.

Then they came for women’s rights, and I did not speak out —
because I am not a woman.

Then they came for the journalists, and I did not speak out —
because I am not a journalist.

Then they came for the minorities, and I did not speak out —
because I am not a minority.

Then they came for the programs to help people in need,
like SNAP, healthcare subsidies, and housing assistance,
and I did not speak out —
because I’m not poor.

Then they came for the judges, elections, and the rule of law,
and I did not speak out —
because I assumed the institutions would hold.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

The Original

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.