|
IKH VEL NISHT FARGESN |
|
|
|
|
|
Children are tucked up in bed School has shut down And lessons are taught By mothers in kitchens instead Normality reigns 'Though it changes by day Under a clear Franconian sky A thunderous pounding is heard at the door In its wake comes a sickening cry "Hier ist die Gestapo, aufmachen Juden" Shreiks a voice filled with venom and hate It's midnight, Fürth, November the ninth The year nineteen thirty-eight In nightshirts and nightgowns They shove and they push As the frail shake with cold and with fright To Shlag Eter Platz Where the trains used to stop You may know it as Fürther Freiheit No word is allowed But the gathering crowd Is encouraged to cackle and jeer As soldiers with guns Beat mothers and sons And ridicule all they hold dear The shul is in flames The store-fronts are smashed The Rabbi holds a hand on his head The first light of dawn is a pitiless grey With market place cobbles stained red Ikh vel nisht fargesn I shall not forget Women and children are sent on their way The men are lined up side by side Then marched the short distance To Berolzheimerianum Where the two yuppie clowns now preside Within these walls They disrobe old men And compel them to take exercise When they cannot comply Or complete what is set They beat them without compromise At the very same time On the very same day In the infamous neighbouring town People are forced To fall to their knees Chew cud And swallow it down In open trucks and with open wounds And with more than their minds will allow These Chassidic men Are paraded again On the long twisted road to Dachau This very first camp In the cold and the damp Is the breaking of all dignity To go without name And to live through the shame Can endanger a man's sanity "I beseech the God of my forefathers Lord why did you do this to me? When they brought me the treyf I upheld my faith Now I hang upside down in a tree" Ikh vel nisht fargesn I shall not forget "Zutritt für Juden und Hunde verboten" Reads the sign outside Stadtpark Don't walk in the street There's danger you'll meet The Hitler youth after dark Don't ride a tram Don't swim in the pool Don't speak on your own telephone Don't work for the town Hold a proper job down Don't congregate, don't be alone And if you must pray Don't dress in that way Don't let people know who you are Don't encourage the hate Just stay quiet and wait For the help that must come from afar But help doesn't come No comfort or crumb Just word from the mouth of the beast In fourteen days clear You'll be taken from here And resettled elsewhere in the east And yes you must pay For that journey today (be it several times the true fare) Settle accounts, all outstanding amounts And leave your bank details right there Don't pack too much Just clothing and such No possession or jewellery fits Your God alone knows You'll need none of those In Theresienstadt or Auschwitz Ikh vel nisht fargesn I shall not forget And in trucks that would raise Grave protest these days If they transported a lamb or a cow Along tracks of the kind Churchill later declined To destroy as is widely known now To davn and weep, to go without sleep To go hungry and have nowhere to hold To look at your wife In fear of her life As your children grow silent and cold Along each and every train line And in each and every car The Lord God rode with His people Cherished them every one And I who have come to your country I who now live in this town I who have suffered no hardship I who you love to put down I who will broker no whitewash I who will dare to be true I am a Jew And to those who would stifle my memory To those who object to my name To those who disgrace their position To those with no honour or shame I quote Ignatz Bubis olov hasholem May his words resound in your brain "Wer die Toten vergisst, tötet sie noch einmal" "Whoever forgets the dead, kills them once again" Ikh vel nisht fargesn I shall not forget Ikh vel nisht fargesn I shall never forget |