Fred Small - Denmark 1943 Lyrics
And it's Eichmann and Himmler are turning the screwsThe Fuhrer they say grows impatient"How can it be Denmark's Jews still walk freeAfter three years of kind occupation?We will take them like sheep in their beds as they sleepOn the second night of their new yearDevoutly at home they'll be helpless aloneWhen they cry out no one will hearBut Duckwitz the German tells Hedtoft the Dane"My friend I have dangerous newsIn three hours the transport ships will set at anchorYou must warn them warn all the Jews"Soon good Rabbi Melchior stands in the synagogue"There'll be no service todayThe raids come tomorrow, dwell not on your sorrowBy nightfall we must be away."And it's fire up the diesel and look out for swellsWe're leaving Espergaerde behind usWho strike at our friends strike us a s wellWe'll pray the patrol boats don't find usWhen the sirens are wailing and shouts fill the nightNever will you stand aloneSo it's over the O*resundTill the day we can welcome you home.Sompolinski the tailor on the eve of Rosh HashanaGathers his family near"The Lord is my light and salvationWhom on this earth shall I fear?"When a young Danish gentile steps into the glowOf the candle with tears flowing down"Good neighbors flee -- I pray you believe me"And as quickly the young man is gone.Christian policemen, shopkeepers, and teachersTell their friends of the quickening stormWhile students on bicycles race through the streetsSearching for Jews to be warnedAnd Katlev the foreman blurts out to the trainman"My family has no place to hide""Well bring em to my house" the stranger replies"And we'll spit in the damn Nazi's eyes."And it's fire up the diesel and look out for swellsWe're leaving Espergaerde behind usWho strike at our friends strike us a s wellWe'll pray the patrol boats don't find usWhen the sirens are wailing and shouts fill the nightNever will you stand aloneSo it's over the O*resundTill the day we can welcome you home.Ellen Nielsen the fishwife in the port of Drago*rHas no use for political viewsShe'll call out the catch "Fresh salmon! Fresh cod!"Comes a whisper "Please help. We are Jews.""But if you are Jews you're not safe on the streetI know a man with a sail"Till moonrise they sleep in the shade of her eavesAnd escape on the fisherman's keel.Rabbi Melchior hires a young trawlermanTo ferry his family acrossAfter twelve hours afloat in a scurfy old boatMorning light shows the same Danish coastSays the skipper "I'm afraid of the German blockadeSo we've motored in circles around"The rabbi gives a shout, with one blow knocks him outAnd steers a straight line 'cross the sound.Frozen with fright in the October nightFamilies huddle in basements and barnsMistaking each breath for the angel of deathThe Gestapo the shot the alarmThen down into the hold with the stench and the coldAnd drug all the babies with schnappsSomeone shouts "Valkoemmen till SverigeYou are in Swedish waters at last!"Seven thousands of Jews smuggled over to SwedenBy fishermen, nurses, and priestsHitler sends Eichmann to hunt them downBut his quarry have vanished like mistWhen the war's over the Jews returnCheers and flowers adorn their way home"We're not heroes or martyrs" so say the Danes"We were just looking after our own."And it's fire up the diesel and look out for swellsWe're leaving Espergaerde behind usWho strike at our friends strike us a s wellWe'll pray the patrol boats don't find usWhen the sirens are wailing and shouts fill the nightNever will you stand aloneSo it's over the O*resund...And today we will welcome you homeAnd today we welcome you home
