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They All Sang the Internationale

from The Other Side by David Rovics

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    This CD features Billy Oskay on violin. Songs include "I Can't Breathe," "Denmark, 1943" and "They All Sang the Internationale."

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about

When I heard some stories about a friend's grandparents in Hamburg, Germany, I was moved to verse, twice. This is the song I wrote about her grandmother and namesake, Katharina Jacob. Particularly about the morning of her liberation from her Nazi captors by Russian troops.

lyrics

Katharina Jacob, long before she took that name
Was organizing workers in Hamburg just the same
Organizing beneath the flag of deepest red
A new dawn of peace and freedom clearly shining in her head

Katharina Jacob first was sent to jail
When the trappings of democracy all began to fail
She was frequently arrested, in and out of custody
While her first husband was in hiding from the Nazis

Katharina Jacob was acquitted of a crime
But the gestapo had the last word and they weren't finished with her this time
She was sent to Ravensbrück, a killing hunger at her side
She heard of the execution, how her second husband died

For Katharina Jacob the end was close at hand
She was on a death march with a ragged, starving band
Marching through a forest, being led by the SS
What would happen hours later seemed impossible to guess

When the sun rose the next morning, it was the first of May
And they all sang the Internationale
And they all sang the Internationale

Katharina Jacob thought about her children
And the friends and comrades taking care of them
Not knowing yet if any of them survived
Not knowing that soon she'd see her daughters both alive

Katharina Jacob watched the German soldiers fleeing
Streaming from the east, that's what she was seeing
Allied bombers flew above them, she thought they all might die and then
Soon there was the silence of all the SS men

Chorus

Katharina Jacob saw red flags flapping in the breeze
Above the Russian tanks and she fell upon her knees
And so many different voices in so many different tongues
Sang the most beautiful song that could ever have been sung

In German, Lithuanian, in Polish and in Dutch
A myriad of melodies as never had been such
In Russian and in Yiddish, Italian and French
Emerging from the forests beneath a trench

Chorus

Völker, hört die Signale! Auf zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale erkämpft das Menschenrecht
Völker, hört die Signale! Auf zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale – erkämpft das Menschenrecht

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from The Other Side, released August 31, 2015

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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