Buchenwald song

The Buchenwaldlied is a song that was created in 1938 by Fritz Löhner-Beda and Hermann Leopoldi , who were then prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp . It was performed by prisoners at roll call and other occasions on the instructions of the SS and was also heard as a marching song when the work columns of the Buchenwald concentration camp moved in and out.

Today the Buchenwald song is an integral part of commemorations for the liberation of this concentration camp.

history

For the entertainment of the SS, it was customary in the concentration camps for prisoners to sing folk songs or marching songs. In the Buchenwald concentration camp , the SS liked the song “There is a little village in the middle of the forest” based on the poem “He was like that too” by Arno Holz and was part of the daily roll call.

At the end of 1938 , the SS officer Arthur Rödl , who was deployed as the “protective custody camp” leader in the Buchenwald concentration camp , asked inmates to write a song for the Buchenwald camp. The Austrian prisoners Fritz Löhner-Beda and Hermann Leopoldi wrote and composed the Buchenwald song in a very short time . It consisted of three stanzas.

Satisfied with the result, Rödl let the prisoners practice the song with vigor. The former Buchenwald prisoner Stefan Heymann wrote about the origin of the song:

“At the end of 1938, the then camp leader Rödl declared, 'All other camps have a song, we must also get a Buchenwald song. Whoever does one gets 10 marks. ' Many drafts were now made by 'poets' and 'composers', but none of them was any good or received no approval from the SS leadership. Only the song, which was then declared the official 'Buchenwald anthem', prevailed because the Kapo of the post office at the time, a BVer , had the necessary connections with the SS. The aforementioned Kapo described himself as the author of the word and melody of the song. The song was made in truth by two Austrian prisoners: the text by Löhner-Beda, Lehar's librettist, the music by Leopoldi, a Viennese cabaret singer. The text and melody of the song had to be practiced on the blocks in their free time until one day after the evening roll call - it was bitterly cold at the end of December 1938, and everything was covered in snow - it was said: 'Sing the Buchenwald song!' Of course, that couldn't work the first time (11,000 people stood on the roll call square). Angry, the stinking drunk Rödl stopped and gave the order that each block on the roll call square had to practice for itself until the song worked. You can imagine what an infernal concert started on the square. When Rödl noticed that it couldn't be done this way, he had them sing together verse for verse and repeat over and over again. Only after the whole camp had stood in this way for about four hours in the bitterest cold did he give the order to leave. But while otherwise every block simply turned around and walked back in the camp, this time it was different. Aligned in rows of ten, each block at the gate had to march past Rödl and other drunken SS leaders and sing the Buchenwald song. Woe to the block that did not arrive exactly aligned or where the singing did not quite work as Rödl wanted! He had to go back mercilessly and march past again. Finally, around 10 p.m., we came to our blocks, starved and frozen stiff. This scene in the dead of winter, when the starving and freezing people stood singing in the glaring light of the headlights in the deep, glaring white snow on the roll call square, is indelibly engraved in every participant's memory. "

The Buchenwald song became the standard for roll calls and other occasions. It was also played as a marching song in Buchenwald concentration camp when the work columns moved in and out.

From 1942 the song was no longer part of the official program, as more and more foreign prisoners were being interned in the Buchenwald concentration camp. “But it became all the more important for individual groups of inmates who sang it again and again to reassure themselves. Especially the last verse of the refrain '... because one day the day comes: Then we are free!' gave them the vision of a life in freedom, for which it is worth using all courage and all strength. "

text

When the day awakens, before the sun shines,
the columns pull
into the graying morning to the day's trouble .
And the forest is black and the sky red,
and we carry a piece of bread in the bread sack and in our
hearts, in our hearts, worries.

O Buchenwald, I cannot forget you
because you are my destiny.
Whoever left you can only appreciate
how wonderful freedom is!
O Buchenwald, we don't moan and complain,
and whatever our fate,
we still want to say yes to life,
because one day the day comes: then we are free!

And the blood is hot and the girl is far away,
and the wind sings softly, and I love her so much
if she just stays true, yes, she remains true!
And the stones are hard, but our step is firm,
and we carry picks and spades with us
and in our hearts, in our hearts love.

O Buchenwald, I cannot forget you ...

And the night is short and the day is so long,
but a song sounds that the homeland sang:
we will not let our courage be robbed.
Keep up, comrade, and do not lose heart,
for we have the will to live in our blood
and in our hearts, in our hearts we have faith.

O Buchenwald, I cannot forget you ...

See also

• The Moorsoldaten , song from the Börgermoor concentration camp

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harry Stein, Buchenwald Memorial (ed.): Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Volume accompanying the permanent historical exhibition , Wallstein, Göttingen 1999, 5th edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6 , p. 80
2. ↑ For example Buchenwaldlied by the former prisoners for the commemoration event for the 62nd anniversary of self-liberation on April 15, 2007  - Internet Archive
3. ↑ The Buchenwald song (text and sheet music)
4. ↑ Report from the former Buchenwald prisoner Stefan Heymann from 1945 Quoted in: The story of Buchenwald.