WE DIDN'T KNOW
(Tom Paxton)

"We didn't know" said the Burgermeister
"about the camp on the edge of town,
It was Hitler and his crew
That tore the German nation down.
We saw the cattle cars it's true.
And maybe they carried a Jew or two.
The woke us up as they rattled through,
But what did you expect me to do.

CHORUS:
We didn't know at all.
We didn't see a thing.
You can't hold us to blame
What could we do
Oh what a terrible shame.
But we can't bear the blame.
Oh no not us, we didn't know.

We didn't know, said the congregation
Singing a hymn in their church of white
The Press was full of lies about us,
Preacher told us we were right
The outside agitators came,
They burned some churches and put the blame
On decent southern people's names
To set our colored people aflame
And maybe some of our boys got hot
And a couple of niggeres and reds got shot.
They should have stayed where they belong
And the preacher would've told us if we'd done wrong.

We didn't know said the puzzled voter,
Watching the President on TV
I guess we've got to drop those bombs
If we're gonna keep South Asia free
The President's such a peaceful man
I guess he's got some kind of plan
They say we're torturing prisoners of war,
But I don't believe that stuff no more
Torturing prisoners is a communist game
And you can bet they're doing the same
I wish this war was over and through
But what did you expect me to do.^^^




rich r

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We Didn't Know added to DT April 2000.
Joe Offer-