It's not something that I necessarily agree with. Just a thought that came into my head when thinking about the "What would I have done?" scenario.

Perhaps an alternate form might be

---

First they came for the Communists

and I did not speak out

because they will be coming for people like me

If I speak out, they will find me.

---

The intuition that I think it expresses is that perhaps people stay silent more from fear than disinterest.