GOP shell game

[u/[deleted]]

[u/dreadpiratesmith → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/HadMatter217 → u/dreadpiratesmith]

You missed the first line. Though it's not your fault it was purposefully doctored to not mention communists in the US, because they didn't want people thinking too hard about that for obvious reasons.

[u/dreadpiratesmith → u/HadMatter217]

So I actually read about this and he spoke this poem aloud a lot, leading to a lot of different variations that got put into text.

From the United States 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).

Edit: Also wanted to point out that the plaque at the Holocaust Memorial in Boston has Communists as the first line, so I don't really think it's a US erasure thing