SING ALL MEN SING
S.Haithwaite 2004

The taxi drew up at a place close to Prague
Where in spring chestnuts burst into flower
In the war from cross Europe they came through its gates
Watched over by men in high towers
A boy wanted to run from his bed in the dirt
Twas a place where no butterfly flew
A ghetto 'approved' but in secret they sang
Strength grew as barbed wire flowers bloomed

Sing All men Sing
What you cant say you must sing
Sing out a requiem
Sing songs of hope
But sing all men sing

Musicians and artists and leaders of men
To confuse and misguide made a show
Children whose paintings and poems tell all
Just look with your hearts you will know
A fantastic illusion of shops filled with goods
Tears fell as the trucks filled with men
Cos its off to the east when your numbers up
Then you'll not see your kinsmen again

From the hunger sprang passion
From the pain sprang a pride
A defiance kept spirits alive
Schaecter taught his requiem Freidl her art
6,000 pictures survived
A broken harmonium rang out the tunes
To defy those who locked them away
A hearse took the dead by the light of the moon
And delivered the bread in the day


87,000 from here were sent east
Of these 83,000 died
Murdered or tortured or perished on route
Of the children a handful survived
Some try to deny that it happened at all
Soon those that survived will be gone
They defied the oppressors with poems and art
And their spirits live on in our songs