SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOF TOPS

 

I like Germany

I like the Germans

I have friends there

I worked for a time near Frankfurt

And I visit Berlin often

It’s my favourite city

They are nice people

Friendly and welcoming

They share our hopes

And our aspirations

We are so alike

We have always been alike

Well almost always

There were dark days

When they were seduced by evil

And let themselves down

So what happened?

What infected this nation?

This nation so like ourselves

How did the madness take them?

Why did they become inhuman?

Why did they set a new benchmark?

In their inhumanity

Why did the good people not rise up?

And oppose the evil

Why did they fail to stop it

Were the jews so bad

So unworthy of pity

Too worthless to be considered

For whatever reason it happened

They let it happen

The worst of them profited by it

The best of them turned a blind eye to it

But they were all guilty

And after the war

I think they felt the guilt

But they feel no guilt now

Now they try to hide behind a lie

Pretending it wasn’t really that bad

There were just a few bad men

And they are gone now

The Americans exaggerated everything

There were isolated incidents

No more than that

Let’s speak of it no more

Lest we offend Islam

Well Islam should be offended

As it was the Turks of the Ottoman empire

Who taught their German allies

The meaning of Holocaust

When they annihilated the Armenians

I say let’s speak of it

Let’s never stop speaking of it

And if offence is caused, then so be it

If it prevents it’s like

From ever happening again

ARE YOU WEARING A YELLOW STAR?

 

Are you wearing a Yellow Star?

Stitched to your winter coat

A heinous mark of foul indignity

While Nazis look on and gloat

ARE YOU WEARING A YELLOW STAR?

 

Are you wearing a Yellow Star?

Stitched to your winter coat

A heinous mark of foul indignity

While Nazis look on and gloat

SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOF TOPS

I like Germany
I like the Germans
I have friends there
I worked for a time near Frankfurt
And I visit Berlin often
It’s my favourite city
They are nice people
Friendly and welcoming
They share our hopes
And our aspirations
We are so alike
We have always been alike
Well almost always
There were dark days
When they were seduced by evil
And let themselves down
So what happened?
What infected this nation?
This nation so like ourselves
How did the madness take them?
Why did they become inhuman?
Why did they set a new benchmark?
In their inhumanity
Why did the good people not rise up?
And oppose the evil
Why did they fail to stop it
Were the jews so bad
So unworthy of pity
Too worthless to be considered
For whatever reason it happened
They let it happen
The worst of them profited by it
The best of them turned a blind eye to it
But they were all guilty
And after the war
I think they felt the guilt
But they feel no guilt now
Now they try to hide behind a lie
Pretending it wasn’t really that bad
There were just a few bad men
And they are gone now
The Americans exaggerated everything
There were isolated incidents
No more than that
Let’s speak of it no more
Lest we offend Islam
Well Islam should be offended
As it was the Turks of the Ottoman empire
Who taught their German allies
The meaning of Holocaust
When they annihilated the Armenians
I say lets speak of it
Let’s never stop speaking of it
And if offence is caused, then so be it
If it prevents its like
From ever happening again

THE DAY DAD WENT TO BELSEN

The tank stopped abruptly
And we sat open mouthed
At what we beheld
Our brains could not assimilate
What our eyes were seeing
Great mounds of …. What?
It can’t be that.
All the horrors of war
We had witnessed, experienced
Since D-day
Did not prepare us
For what Belsen held in store
A place devoid of God
A place where even birdsong was banished
We dismounted and approached on foot
As each step brought us closer
Our worst fears were realised
We saw that the mounds were indeed bodies
Or something likened to bodies
Then I saw an androgynous figure
Stood at the fence
A dirty little bag of bones
Wrapped in dirty rags
Bony fingers clutching the wire
Like a birds feet gripping a trig
I reasoned it was a girl
As the rags might well have been a dress
“We are English” I said
“Don’t be afraid”
Her fleshless face was beyond gaunt,
Her shaved head little more than a skull
Her huge eyes were so black and deep
I could see into her soul
A weak smile played round her mouth
And tears welled up in her huge eyes
I would not have believed it possible
For her desiccated form
To have held enough moisture for tears
But they were there
And they ran down the grubby cheeks
Of the little bag of bones
And dripped onto her ragged dress
We ran to the gates
And forced them open
Then we stepped into the jaws of hell
More skeletal figure appeared
From amidst the piles of rotting corpses
Bemused and disbelieving
They hugged us, and thanked us
Some cried, some laughed
We gave them water
And fed them our rations
Not realising we were finishing
What the Germans had started
The food was too rich
For their weak emaciated bodies
What we didn’t realise
Was we were killing them with kindness
The girls name was Elise
She was the same age as me
But she died the next day
Her face with the huge tear filled eyes
Haunted my dreams
All of the days of my life
Penetrating my soul
And breaking my heart
My only consolation
Was that she at least knew kindness
Once more before she died

HOLOCAUST

Since the cooling of the Nazi’s oven fires
And the fading glow of the funeral pyres
The world has had to endure the mutterings
Of those who deny the holocausts sufferings
The inane ramblings of conspiracy theorists
The bigoted bile of Islamic fundamentalists
The holocaust now stricken from the syllabus
We must not speak of it lest we cause a fuss
We must appease the liberal sentiments
For God forbid we might cause offence
But the holocaust happened, SHOUT it aloud
Shout it in the face of the apathetic crowd
For if we do not condemn the holocaust deniers
Somewhere, one day they will relight the fires