1939

the man of the year

from the magazine Time

Stands on his pedestal

and preaches to the people

just like the little man 

preaching from the steeple

about values

An old-fashioned man 

with old-fashioned tastes 

and an uncanny liking 

for the master race

is in power

and he sends out his message 

from his ivory tower

to the faithful

who listen like sheep

 and the promises he makes 

are not difficult to keep

'they take to the streets

with their boots and black shirts

and take baseball bats

 to the jewish outskirts

little man leader

made a devilish pact

and the first real result 

became known as Kristalnacht

..................

Then they started building 

the holiday camps

with no mattresses

on the beds 

and no shades on the lamps

then came the trains 

from the master race

packed with people 

of all different types

pink triangles for the queers 

and black for the dykes

for the jews they reserved 

the big golden star

they'd burnt all the books

they reserved their part

in the new history

Now the trains kept on coming 

all day and all night

they beat down their spirits 

to beat down their fight

babies were born 

on the trains on the way

but they were jew babies

they got thrown away

like garbage

lives without worth

they placed more value on skin

than they did on birth

skin they cut away

from the dead and the dying

skin with tatoos 

that they left out for drying'

on frames

and made into lampshades

no two the same

then in the teeth

gold fillings were found

they melted them down 

and sold them by the pound

to greedy swiss bankers 

who'd trade on the side

'cause when the government asked them 

of course they lied

We don't do business with the nazi regime 

but we don't want to end up 

backing the wrong team

so we'll buy gold in secret

and keep it in vaults

and when the wars over

it's just not our fault

if half of the germans, 

welljust down survive

'cause we can only pay money 

to those who're alive

.................

And now back to the camps

with their fences and walls

and young teenage jewgirls 

as company whores

we'll give you a name

the joy division

you've got choice

not your decision

its the beds or the showers

you make your choice

'cause when you're in the showers

no-one hears your voice 

when you scream

we've sent your mother to the showers 

and your father too

and there's a place in the corner

just waiting for you

so do what we want

and you'd better do it well

or we'll send your whole family

to a jewish hell

..................

Then after the war 

came the nurenburg trials

where they put up a few 

but they buried the files

of the rest

'cause they'd moved to the country 

with their wives and their kids

forgot all about the emancipated yids

with gold stars

that they'd sent to the ovens 

and kept behind bars

they reclaimed the gold 

that they sold to swiss banks

paid all the charges

a way to say thanks

for having no morals

for saying the holocaust

isn't one of our quarrels.

And now sixty years on 

and the world has forgotten 

how quickly a system 

can start to go rotten

and decay

there are countries in the world

doing it the same way

In Brazil there are police

who are shooting street kids

yids killing arabs

arabs killing yids

in china they do it 

with tanks on the square

we're living in a world

which just isn't fair

look at kosova

and all the dead people 

think back to the little man 

preaching from the steeple

the're the same

all that's changed is the name

used to be Hitler

now it's Milosovich

watch the reports

have trouble choosing which 

is worse

of course Hitler killed more 

and well-he was first

but the operas not over 

till the fat lady sings

don't be like the germans

who didn't see a thing

stand up be counted

shout out - this is wrong

don't be a harmony

to the fat ladies song.