I have been to hell today.
I saw the Devil's naked face.
I felt the poison freeze my heart
In that evil, evil place.
I heard the ghosts cry out in warning,
Their voices ringing through the years.
I stood beneath the barbed wire fence,
And wept, and wept, bitter tears.
Never, never again!
I stood alone that winter's day,
On that barren killing ground.
Inside my head the voices grew
Till my brain was bursting with the sound.
They cried, "Comrade, do not forget us!"
And I replied, "I never will!"
And as my soul in anguish wept,
One by one, the voices stilled.
Never, never again!
Europe, sixty years ago - remember?
Depression, millions on the dole - remember?
In those dark despairing times
Of unemployment and bread-lines
A cancer grew, fat and malign - remember?
Its banner was a crooked cross - remember?
Its destiny a holocaust - remember?
Its creed was racial purity.
It fed on fear and bigotry.
Its touch was death and slavery – remember?
It's happening again. It's happening again.
Can't you see it's happening again?
It's happening again. It's happening again.
Can't you see it's happening again?
Treblinka, Auschwitz and Dachau - remember?
David's Star, a people's shroud - remember?
No refuge and no hiding place
For non-members of the Master Race,
Whole nations enslaved and debased - remember?
Blood and toil and sweat and tears - remember?
The nightmare lasted six long years - remember?
The world drowned in a bloody tide
Of war and death and genocide.
Fifty-seven million died - remember?
I've lived in freedom all my life,
Never thinking much about the cost,
Of those who suffered and who died
So that freedom's flame would not be lost.
I saw the flame in Sachsenhausen.
In spite of all, it's burning yet.
To all the ghosts who guard the flame,
I promise you, I won't forget.
Never, never again!
Never, never again!
I saw the Devil's naked face.
I felt the poison freeze my heart
In that evil, evil place.
I heard the ghosts cry out in warning,
Their voices ringing through the years.
I stood beneath the barbed wire fence,
And wept, and wept, bitter tears.
Never, never again!
I stood alone that winter's day,
On that barren killing ground.
Inside my head the voices grew
Till my brain was bursting with the sound.
They cried, "Comrade, do not forget us!"
And I replied, "I never will!"
And as my soul in anguish wept,
One by one, the voices stilled.
Never, never again!
Europe, sixty years ago - remember?
Depression, millions on the dole - remember?
In those dark despairing times
Of unemployment and bread-lines
A cancer grew, fat and malign - remember?
Its banner was a crooked cross - remember?
Its destiny a holocaust - remember?
Its creed was racial purity.
It fed on fear and bigotry.
Its touch was death and slavery – remember?
It's happening again. It's happening again.
Can't you see it's happening again?
It's happening again. It's happening again.
Can't you see it's happening again?
Treblinka, Auschwitz and Dachau - remember?
David's Star, a people's shroud - remember?
No refuge and no hiding place
For non-members of the Master Race,
Whole nations enslaved and debased - remember?
Blood and toil and sweat and tears - remember?
The nightmare lasted six long years - remember?
The world drowned in a bloody tide
Of war and death and genocide.
Fifty-seven million died - remember?
I've lived in freedom all my life,
Never thinking much about the cost,
Of those who suffered and who died
So that freedom's flame would not be lost.
I saw the flame in Sachsenhausen.
In spite of all, it's burning yet.
To all the ghosts who guard the flame,
I promise you, I won't forget.
Never, never again!
Never, never again!
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2018/5/17 - 16:53
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Parole e musica di Eric Bogle
Nell’album “Mirrors”
Testo trovato su Mudcat Café
“I wrote 'Never Again' after a trip to the WWII concentration camp called Sachsenhausen, situated just outside Berlin (or East Berlin as it was then). Chilling little place. It seems the political and social obscenity that created Sachsenhausen, and many other death camps, is on the rise again. Could it all happen again? Of course it could. It already is.” (Eric Bogle)