Ossietzky Song (Dat Leed för den Häftling #562)

En halv Dusend un fief Dutzend
Un denn noch twee mal Een.
Kind, mien Kind, tell dat tosamen,
Denn hest de Tahl, de ik meen.

Is en Tahl blots, is en Tahl blots.
Schriev se up. Kind, hest sehn?
Disse Tahl, dat weer de Nummer,
Weer de Nummer, de ik meen.

Weer en Nummer, blots en Nummer.
Van ganz veel weer 't man een.
So veel Nummers up de Jacken
Van de Minsken de ik meen.

Weren Minsken, insperrt Minsken.
Hitler harr 't Regiment;
Man se glöven, wat se glöven
– foltert, slaan, vergast, verbrennt.

Mennig Christ un Kommunisten,
Sozialdemokraat
Jöden, Zentrum, Pazifisten:
„Schutzhaft“, KZ, Moorsoldaat.

In 't KZ van Esterwegen
– Kind, nüms kann 't nu verstahn! –
Hebbt se Carl von Ossietzky
Elennig tosamenslaan.

Neg'n-teihn-hun-nert- acht-un-daar-tig.
Veerden Mai in Berlin:
Ünner Upsicht van d'GeStaPo
Schreven se sien Dodenschien.

Fief-hun-nert-un-twee-un-seß-tig
Weer sien Nummer mal ween.
Den Nobelpries för den Freden
Kreeg de Häftling, de ik meen.

Gegen Unrecht harr he streden.
Mien Kind, vergeet dat nich:
Waak ween, handeln för den Freden,
Denn dat Woord alleen helpt nich.

Text: Oswald Andrae, Musik: Oswald Andrae, Iko Andrae, Andreas Bahlmann, Eckhard Harjes

Prisoner 562

Half a thousand, half a hundred, six times two, pick up your pen
Child, my child, count it up now, that’s the number that I mean.

It’s a number, just a number, count it up,child, while you can.
Understand it and remember, it’s the number they gave a man.

It’s a number, just a number, one of hundreds, a sign of shame,
Each man’s jacket had a number, men had numbers, none had names.

Hitler’s system took their freedom, took them prisoner one by one,
For the courage of their convictions, they were tortured, gassed and burned.

They took Communist, they took Pacifist, they took Social Democrat.
Jew and Christian, all were prisoned in the concentration camp.

To the camp of Esterwegen, listen child, and understand,
They took Carl von Ossietzky, and broke his body – but not his mind.

In Berlin, upon the fourth of May, Nineteen-Hundred and Thirty-Eight,
The Gestapo with it’s treatment, signed his death certificate.

Five-six-two, his prison number, listen child, I beg you please,
Keep in mind, always remember, he got the Nobel Price for Peace.

In the struggle against injustice, he fought hard and he fought long,
Child, remember Ossietzky, peace won’t come by words alone.

This english version is written and sung by Ian Macintosh

Text: Oswald Andrae, Music: Oswald Andrae, Iko Andrae, Andreas Bahlmann, Eckhard Harjes