Dear Susanne,

Thank you ever so much for your find and your work of translation and posting!

I have kept it as a favorite for about 25 years now. I heard the tradition of it being an early camp song, and of its creation by the political prisoners, but until now no details.

I was specially taken by the section about its effect on the SS, and the prisoners' use of the song as a way to draw the more humane guards into political discussions. This passage ranks right up there with "Christmas in the Trenches;" on each end of that rifle, we're the same.

Very moving. –the canoer