Subject: Lyr add: Dachaulied (German) & English translation
From:
Felipa
Date: 26 Jan 23 - 10:22 AM
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/music-early-camps/dachau/dachaulied/
"The 'Dachaulied' (Dachau song) was composed by Herbert Zipper to a text by Jura Soyfer. The two had been friends in Vienna in the 1930s, and in the summer of 1938 they again met up in Dachau, where they talked and made up songs and poems together. One day Zipper suggested Soyfer compose a poem based on the infamous slogan of the camp, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work will set you free). He memorised the poem that Soyfer recited to him a few days later, composed music to it in his head, and hummed it to some fellow prisoner-musicians, who soon made the song popular throughout the camp. Shortly after composing the song, on 23 September 1938, Zipper was transferred together with Soyfer to Buchenwald."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELgZLS_o_4 sung at a commemoration
recording with words on screen
Further background information:https://norbertmiller.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/541/ WORTH LOOKING AT
The story of how the song was preserved and disseminated reminds me of the story of Victor Jara's last song.
DACHAULIED
Jura Soyfer (tune by Herbert Zipper)
Stacheldraht, mit Tod geladen,
Ist um unsre Welt gespannt.
Drauf ein Himmel ohne Gnaden
Sendet Frost und Sonnenbrand.
Fern von uns sind alle Freuden,
Fern die Heimat und die Fraun,
Wenn wir stumm zur Arbeit schreiten,
Tausende im Morgengraun.
Doch wir haben die Losung von Dachau gelernt,
Und wir wurden stahlhart dabei.
Bleib ein Mensch, Kamerad,
Sei ein Mann, Kamerad,
Mach ganze Arbeit, pack an Kamerad:
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei,
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei!
Vor der Mündung der Gewehre
Leben wir bei Tag und Nacht.
Leben wird uns hier zur Lehre,
Schwerer, als wir's je gedacht.
Keiner mehr zählt Tag' und Wochen,
Mancher schon die Jahre nicht.
Und so viele sind zerbrochen
Und verloren ihr Gesicht.
Doch wir haben die Losung von Dachau gelernt,
Und wir wurden stahlhart dabei.
Bleib ein Mensch, Kamerad,
Sei ein Mann, Kamerad,
Mach ganze Arbeit, pack an Kamerad:
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei,
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei!
Heb den Stein und zieh den Wagen,
Keine Last sei dir zu schwer.
Der du warst in fernen Tagen,
Bist du heut schon längst nicht mehr.
Stich den Spaten in die Erde,
Grab dein Mitleid tief hinein,
Und im eignen Schweiße werde
Selber du zu Stahl und Stein.
Doch wir haben die Losung von Dachau gelernt,
Und wir wurden stahlhart dabei.
Bleib ein Mensch, Kamerad,
Sei ein Mann, Kamerad,
Mach ganze Arbeit, pack an Kamerad:
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei,
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei!
Einst wird die Sirene künden:
Auf zum letzten Zählappell!
Draußen dann, wo wir uns finden,
Bist du, Kamerad, zur Stell.
Hell wird uns die Freiheit lachen,
Schaffen heißt's mit großem Mut.
Und die Arbeit, die wir machen.
Diese Arbeit, sie wird gut.
Denn wir haben die Losung von Dachau gelernt,
Und wir wurden stahlhart dabei.
Bleib ein Mensch, Kamerad,
Sei ein Mann, Kamerad,
Mach ganze Arbeit, pack an Kamerad:
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei,
Denn Arbeit, denn Arbeit macht frei!
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/dachaulied-song-dachau.html
TRANSLATION
Tereza Vorošilova
Song of Dachau
Barbed wire, loaded with death,
Stretches around our world.
Above, a sky without mercy
Sends frost and sunburn.
Far from us are all joys,
Far away are home and women,
When we silently march to work,
Thousands at dawn.
But we have learned the motto of Dachau,
And we became hard as steel through it.
Remain human, comrade,
Be a man, comrade,
Work properly, work hard, comrade:
Because work, work sets you free,
Because work, work sets you free!
In front of the rifle muzzles
We live day and night.
Life becomes a lesson here,
Harder than we ever thought.
Nobody still counts day or week,
Some not even the years anymore.
And so many have been broken
And lost their face.
But we have learned the motto of Dachau,
And we became hard as steel through it.
Remain human, comrade,
Be a man, comrade,
Work properly, work hard, comrade:
Because work, work sets you free,
Because work, work sets you free!
Lift the rock and pull the cart,
No burden may be too heavy for you.
Who you were in distant days,
You haven't been for a long time now.
Stick the spade deep into the ground,
Bury your sympathy deep inside,
And in your own sweat become
Steel and stone yourself.
But we have learned the motto of Dachau,
And we became hard as steel through it.
Remain human, comrade,
Be a man, comrade,
Work properly, work hard, comrade:
Because work, work sets you free,
Because work, work sets you free!
Someday the siren will proclaim:
Towards the last roll call!
Outside then, where we find ourselves,
You, comrade, will be there.
Brightly will freedom smile at us,
Work is the motto, with much bravery.
And the work we do,
That work will become good.
But we have learned the motto of Dachau,
And we became hard as steel through it.
Remain human, comrade,
Be a man, comrade,
Work properly, work hard, comrade:
Because work, work sets you free,
Because work, work sets you free!
TRANSLATION
DACHAU SONG (translation published in Paul Cummins' biography of Herbert Zipper)
Charged with death, high tension wire
Rings around our world a chain.
Pitiless, a sky sends fire,
Biting frost and drenching rain.
Far from us is lust for living,
Far our women, far our town.
When we mutely march to toiling
Thousands into morning’s dawn.
CHORUS
But we all learned the motto of Dachau to heed
And became as hardened as stone.
Stay humane, Dachau man, be a man, Dachau mate
And work as hard as you can, Dachau mate
For work leads to freedom alone!
Faced by ever-threatening rifles
We exist by night and day.
Life itself, this hell hole stifles
Worse than any words can say.
Days and weeks we leave unnumbered
Some forget the count of years.
And their spirits encumbered
With their faces scarred by tears.
CHORUS
Lift the stone and drag the wagon
Shun no burden and no chore.
Who you were in days long gone by
Here you are not anymore.
Stab the earth and bury depthless
All the pity you can feel.
And with your own sweat hapless
You convert to stone and steel.
CHORUS
Once will sound the siren’s wailing
Summons to the last roll-call.
Outside, then, we will be hailing
Dachau mates uniting all.
Freedom brightly will be shining,
For the hard-forged brotherhood.
And the work we are designing
Our work it will be good.
CHORUS
John Lehmann's translation Song of the Austrians in Dachau, can be seen in an image at https://norbertmiller.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/541/ (link given earlier in this post) and in the book Poems from New Writing (pseudonym Georg Anders)
also at https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/music-early-camps/dachau/dachaulied/words/ :
SONG OF THE AUSTRIANS IN DACHAU (From the German of Jura Soyfer)
John Lehmann, c. 1941
Over the entrance to Dachau Concentration Camps stood the words: ARBEIT MACHT FREI.
Pitiless the barbed wire dealing Death,
that round our prison runs,
And a sky that knows no feeling
Sends us ice and burning suns;
Lost to us the world of laughter,
Lost our homes, our loves, our all;
Through the dawn our thousands muster,
To their work in silence fall.
But the slogan of Dachau is burnt on our brains
And unyielding as steel we shall be
Are we men brother? Then we'll be men when they've done,
Work on, we'll go through with the task we've begun,
For work, brother, work makes us free.
Haunted by the gun mouths turning
All our days and nights are spent;
Toil is ours - the way we're learning
Harder than we ever dreamt;
Weeks and months we cease to reckon
Pass, and some forget the years,
And so many men are broken
And their faces changed with fears.
But the slogan of Dachau is burnt on our brains etc...
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sj
