Hello:
I've had this poem stuck in my head for years; I love it, I just can't remember all of it. Whoopi Goldberg did a recitation of it on the Oscars one year. I remember the jist of the poem:
It's about doing nothing while others are taken, and the realization of what doing nothing means.
I think it was writen by a monk?
I think it was written about the Nazis, or rewritten to describe what happened then.
The last line reads something like this:
And when they came for me there was no one left to defend me.
Something like that.
If anyone out there knows this poem, please at least tell me the title or author.
I really admire the poem. And I just wish I could remember it.
Thank you for the help!

In Germany they came first 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 was a Protestant. Then they
came for me--and by that time no one was left to speak up. *

Martin Niemöller 1892-1984.

Stephen

Thank you StephenFryer!