While Niemöller's published 1946 speeches mention Communists, the incurably ill, Jews or Jehovah's Witnesses (depending on which speech), and people in occupied countries, the 1955 text, a paraphrase by a German professor in an interview, lists Communists, Socialists, "the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on," and ends with "the Church". This likely refers to the thousands of Catholic priests and other ministers imprisoned at Dachau and other camps. However, as cited by Richard John Neuhaus in the November 2001 issue of First Things, when "asked in 1971 about the correct version of the quote, Niemöller said he was not quite sure when he had said the famous words but, if people insist upon citing them, he preferred a version that listed "the Communists", "the trade unionists", "the Jews", and "me".[citation needed]
At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, the quotation is on display, but is altered so that there is no mention of communists, even though communists have been mentioned in every version of the quote given. The Holocaust Museum website, however, gives a thorough discussion of the history of the quotation.
