No one left who could protest

Last week I referred to a poem that I said included the phrase, "They came for the Jew. I didn't speak up because I'm not a Jew." Two people have now responded (one as a blog comment, the other through email) citing the full text and author of the poem. Thanks to both of you.

The author is Martin Niemoeller. He was a minister of religion (I take that to be a government post) and a high profile opponent of the Nazis as they came to power. Nieloeller lived through the first few lines of the poem before speaking out. At Hitler's command he spent the war years in a concentration camp.

There are several versions of the poem. The one I'll repeat here is, according to a German, a better translation from German into English than the version more widely known. It is translated from an earlier version of the poem that doesn't include the Jews. The poem gives the actual order of groups attacked by the Nazis.

When the Nazis came for the communists, I said nothing;
I was, of course, no communist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing;
I was, of course, no Social Democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I said nothing;
I was, of course, no trade unionist.
When they came for me, there was no one left who could protest.