Fred Small - Denmark 1943Lyrics

And it's Eichmann and Himmler are turning the screws The Fuhrer they say grows impatient "How can it be Denmark's Jews still walk free After three years of kind occupation? We will take them like sheep in their beds as they sleep On the second night of their new year Devoutly at home they'll be helpless alone When they cry out no one will hear" But Duckwitz the German tells Hedtoft the Dane "My friend I have dangerous news In three hours the transport ships will set at anchor You must warn them warn all the Jews" Soon good Rabbi Melchior stands in the synagogue "There'll be no service today The raids come tomorrow, dwell not on your sorrow By nightfall we must be away" [Chorus] And it's fire up the diesel and look out for swells We're leaving Espergaerde behind us Who strike at our friends strike us as well We'll pray the patrol boats don't find us When the sirens are wailing and shouts fill the night Never will you stand alone So it's over the Oresund Till the day we can welcome you home Sompolinski the tailor on the eve of Rosh Hashana Gathers his family near "The Lord is my light and salvation Whom on this earth shall I fear?" When a young Danish gentile steps into the glow Of 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 teachers Tell their friends of the quickening storm While students on bicycles race through the streets Searching for Jews to be warned And 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" [Chorus] Ellen Nielsen the fishwife in the port of Dragør Has no use for political views She'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 street I know a man with a sail" Till moonrise they sleep in the shade of her eaves And escape on the fisherman's keel Rabbi Melchior hires a young trawlerman To ferry his family across After twelve hours afloat in a scurfy old boat Morning light shows the same Danish coast Says the skipper "I'm afraid of the German blockade So we've motored in circles around" The rabbi gives a shout, with one blow knocks him out And steers a straight line 'cross the sound Frozen with fright in the October night Families huddle in basements and barns Mistaking each breath for the angel of death The Gestapo, the shot, the alarm Then down into the hold with the stench and the cold And drug all the babies with schnapps Someone shouts, "Valkömmen till Sverige You are in Swedish waters at last" Seven thousands of Jews smuggled over to Sweden By fishermen, nurses, and priests Hitler sends Eichmann to hunt them down But his quarry have vanished like mist When the war's over the Jews return Cheers and flowers adorn their way home "We're not heroes or martyrs," so say the Danes "We were just looking after our own" [Chorus] And today we will welcome you home And today we welcome you home