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."

Museum visitors in front of the Martin Niemöller quotation

Visitors stand in front of the quotation from  Martin Niemöller  that is on display in the Permanent Exhibition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

~Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran minister and early Nazi supporter who was later imprisoned for opposing Hitler's regime.

• US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The quotation stems from Niemöller's lectures during the early postwar period. Different versions of the quotation exist. These can be attributed to the fact that Niemöller spoke extemporaneously and in a number of settings. Much controversy surrounds the content of the poem as it has been printed in varying forms, referring to diverse groups such as Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Trade Unionists, or Communists depending upon the version. Nonetheless his point was that Germans had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people. He felt this was true in particular of the leaders of the Protestant churches (of which the Lutheran church was one denomination).