Elijya said:
no, you misquoted a poem written about the Holocaust called First They Came...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte. When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Did you miss this part:
The poem influenced the song "Yellow Triangle" by
folk singer Christy Moore.
In 1991 the
Scottish musical duo
Hue and Cry paraphrased the poem in a song recorded at
Cirque Royale,
Brussels. The relevant portion of the song was:
When they came for the Jews and the blacks, I turned away When they came for the writers and the thinkers and the radicals and the protestors, I turned away When they came for the gays, and the minorities, and the utopians, and the dancers, I turned away And when they came for me, I turned around and around, and there was nobody left... It also infuenced the song "Emigre" by
Anti-Flag. The song, recorded on the album "For Blood and Empire" relates to "First they came
" in the first stanza:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out Next they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out And then they came for me! "Re-gaining Unconsciousness" by punk band
NOFX also appears to have been influenced by the poem;
First they put away the dealers, keep our kids safe and off the street. Then they put away the prostitutes, keep married men cloistered at home. Then they shooed away the bums, then they beat and bashed the queers, turned away asylum-seekers, fed us suspicions and fears. We didn't raise our voice, we didn't make a fuss. It's funny there was no one left to notice when they came for us. As has "Madame Guillotine" by the
Legendary Pink Dots:
First they rounded up the reds But I'm not red so
Then they rounded up the blacks But I'm not black so
Then they rounded up the gypsies And the junkies and the donkeys. Now I'm scared to whistle 'swanee' 'Cause they'll ask me for my spit
The poem also appears to have influenced a more recent poem, by
Niyi Osundare, a Nigerian who was vocal in his criticism of the Nigerian government in the 1990's. The poem 'Not my business' lists the people 'they' come for, by name, and shows the poet turning away. It is no business of his 'so long as they don't take the yam' from his hand. Finally they come for him, and there is silence.
In the
X-Factor Investigations comic series, the mutant
Quicksilver quotes the poem in reference to the Superhero Registration Act.
Charles Mingus uses a version of the poem on his song "Don't Let It Happen Here," on the album "Music Written for Monterey, 1965 Not Heard...Played Live in Its Entirety at UCLA," which after a small release was out of print for many years until re-released on September 26, 2006. He changes and expands the ending:
One day they came and they took the Communists And I said nothing because I was not a Communist Then one day they came and they took the people of the Jewish faith And I said nothing because I had no faith left One day they came and they took the unionists And I said nothing because I was not a unionist One day they burned the Catholic churches And I said nothing because I was born a Protestant Then one day they came and they took me And I could say nothing because I was as guilty as they were For not speaking out and saying that all men have a right to freedom On any land I was as guilty of genocide As you All of you For you know when a man is free And when to set him free from his slavery So I charge you all with genocide The same as I One of the 18 million dead Jews 18 million dead people