Six Million Germans / Nakam - the Painted Bird/Daniel Kahn.mp3

[00:00.17]
[00:05.17]In nineteen hundred forty five
[00:09.41]Among the Jews who were left alive
[00:13.05]There came a visionary man
[00:17.89]Who turned his wrath into a plan
[00:22.07]Abba Kovner was his name
[00:25.57]As a partisan he earned his fame
[00:30.37]He was a Vilna rebel Jew
[00:34.68]A poet warrior through & through
[00:38.55]He met some surviving ghetto fighters
[00:41.10]Zionists & socialists conspired
[00:43.46]They gathered in a Lublin flat
[00:45.00]& round the kitchen table sat
[00:47.00]They gave themselves a Hebrew name
[00:51.42]& with this word they did proclaim
[00:55.19]That vengeance is what God would will,
[00:57.27]Were there a God, & so they'd kill
[01:00.06]Six million Germans...
[01:01.93]You might say it was insane
[01:04.08]Six million Germans...
[01:06.06]That it was misdirected pain
[01:08.05]Six million Germans...
[01:10.26]They didn't want the war to end
[01:12.30]Six million Germans...
[01:14.37]They wanted one thing, Nakam: Revenge
[01:20.59]For every Jew the nazis gassed
[01:24.25]For every racist law they passed
[01:28.72]For every wrong that wasn't right
[01:32.69]For all the dead Nakam would fight
[01:36.79]They formed a band of forty strong
[01:40.75]To straighten out what had been wrong
[01:44.77]They chose to poison water mains
[01:48.87]Just as the Jews of old were blamed
[01:53.03]In Nuremberg & Hamburg town
[01:55.17]Their agents worked the underground
[01:57.02]They took up jobs by the riverside
[01:59.29]& waited for the poison to arrive
[02:01.19]& Kovner went to Tel Aviv
[02:05.03]To see what help he could receive
[02:09.18]But the Haganah did not agree
[02:11.60]To join in his conspiracy
[02:13.77]Six million Germans...
[02:15.92]You might say it wasn't right
[02:17.88]Six million Germans...
[02:19.77]An eye for an eye leaves all without sight
[02:22.23]Six million Germans...
[02:23.94]They didn't want to make amends
[02:26.35]Six million Germans...
[02:28.13]They wanted one thing, Nakam: Revenge
[02:38.13]
[02:46.39]So Abba Kovner headed back
[02:50.20]With vials of poison in his sack
[02:54.51]Upon an British navy ship
[02:58.58]But to his plan the Brits were tipped
[03:02.85]They took him into custody
[03:06.68]& the poison fell into the sea
[03:10.26]Kovner spent a year in jail
[03:14.72]& so plan A did not prevail
[03:18.70]The rest of the group was dispersed
[03:20.81]& all their backup plans were cursed
[03:22.94]But in an agent in a bakery he
[03:24.64]Secured some poison from Paris
[03:26.86]As soon as the poison bread had risen
[03:30.55]He took it to an allied prison
[03:34.64]& various reports have said
[03:36.78]There were 100's of SS prisoners dead
[03:38.98]Six million Germans...
[03:40.83]You might say that it was wrong
[03:42.77]Six million Germans...
[03:44.34]But were their actions weak or strong?
[03:46.87]Six million Germans...
[03:48.71]& who are we to judge & condemn?
[03:50.65]Six million Germans...
[03:52.55]They wanted one thing, Nakam: Revenge
[04:02.13]& so Nakam was all disbanded
[04:05.80]On Palestina's shore they landed
[04:09.54]& Abba Kovner & his crew
[04:13.62]Became like many other Jews
[04:17.35]They put aside their rage & hate
[04:21.30]& worked to build a Jewish state
[04:25.09]With Jewish towns & Jewish farms,
[04:29.02]& Jewish guns & nuclear arms
[04:32.84]Now can vengeance put upon a shelf
[04:35.21]Be taken out later on someone else?
[04:37.30]Well careful how you read this tale.
[04:38.90]Lest your own prejudice prevail
[04:40.59]For look around the world today
[04:44.23]& consider the role vengeance plays
[04:48.12]For history has its unpaid debts
[04:50.75]& is it better if we forget?
[04:52.30]Six million Germans...
[04:54.27]You might say it was absurd
[04:56.28]Six million Germans...
[04:58.15]But what becomes of a dream deferred?
[04:59.94]Six million Germans...
[05:01.89]& how could they just start again?
[05:03.92]Six million Germans...
[05:05.57]They wanted one thing, Nakam: Revenge