Eric Bogle: Never Again - Remember

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.

I stood alone that winter's day on that barren killing ground
Inside my head the voices grew 'til 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.

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Europe, sixty years ago - Remember?
Depressions, 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?

CHORUS: 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 Masters' 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?

CHORUS (2x)

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I lived in freedom all my life, never thinking much about the cost
Of those who suffered and who died so that freedom's flame should not be lost
I saw the flame in Sachsenhausen
In spite of all its burning yet
To all the ghosts who guard the flame, I promise you, I won't forget.
Never, never again.
Never, never again.
Bogle, ein australischer Singer/Songwriter schottischer Herkunft, wurde 1987 durch einen Besuch im KZ Sachsenhausen zu "Never Again" inspiriert (oder provoziert). Er nahm es zuerst einzeln auf, kombinierte es dann aber später mit einem seiner anderen Stücke, "Remember".