Denmark 1943 - Fred Small (Lyrics and Chords)

ARTIST: Fred Small
TITLE: Denmark 1943
Lyrics and Chords


[ Cadd9 = ; Fadd9 =  ]

And it's Eichmann and Himmler are turning the screws
The Führer they say grows impatient
"How can it be Denmark's Jews still walk free
After three years of kind occupation?
We will take them like sheep in their beds as they sleep
On the second night of their new year
Devoutly at home they'll be helpless alone
When they cry out no one will hear"

/ Em - - - / - - C - / - - C/B - / Am Am7 D - /
   / Cmaj7 - D - / / C G Am G / Cadd9 - Fadd9 - - - /

   But Duckwitz the German tells Hedtoft the Dane
   "My friend I have dangerous news
   In three hours the transport ships will set at anchor
   You must warn them, warn all the Jews"
   Soon good Rabbi Melchior stands in the synagogue
   "There'll be no service today
   The raids come tomorrow, dwell not on your sorrow
   By nightfall we must be away"

   / Em - C - / / / Am Am7 D - / C - D - / G D Em Em/D / 
      / Am - Bm - / C Em F D / 

{Refrain}
And it's fire up the diesel and look out for swells
We're leaving Espergaerde behind us
Who strike at our friends strike us as well
We'll pray the patrol boats don't find us
When the sirens are wailing and shouts fill the night
Never will you stand alone
So it's over the Øresund
Till the day we can welcome you home

/ G - D - / C - D - / G - Bm - / C Em G D / 
   / C - Em - / Am Am7 F D / G D Em A / C D G - Dsus4 D /

Sompolinski the tailor on the eve of Rosh Hashana
Gathers his family near
"The Lord is my light and salvation
Whom on this earth shall I fear?"
When a young Danish gentile steps into the glow
Of the candle with tears flowing down
"Good neighbors flee - I pray you believe me"
And as quickly the young man is gone

   Christian policemen, shopkeepers, and teachers
   Tell their friends of the quickening storm
   While students on bicycles race through the streets
   Searching for Jews to be warned
   And Katlev the foreman blurts out to the trainman
   "My family has no place to hide"
   "Well bring 'em to my house," the stranger replies
   "And we'll spit in the damn Nazi's eyes"

{Refrain}

Ellen Nielsen the fishwife in the port of Dragør
Has no use for political views
She'll call out the catch, "Fresh salmon, fresh cod"
Comes a whisper "Please help, we are Jews"
"But if you are Jews you're not safe on the street
I know a man with a sail"
Till moonrise they sleep in the shade of her eaves
And escape on the fisherman's keel

   Rabbi Melchior hires a young trawlerman
   To ferry his family across
   After twelve hours afloat in a scurfy old boat
   Morning light shows the same Danish coast
   Says the skipper "I'm afraid of the German blockade
   So we've motored in circles around"
   The Rabbi gives a shout, with one blow knocks him out
   And steers a straight line 'cross the sound

Frozen with fright in the October night
Families huddle in basements and barns
Mistaking each breath for the angel of death
The Gestapo, the shot, the alarm
Then down into the hold with the stench and the cold
And drug all the babies with schnapps
Someone shouts, "Valkömmen till Sverige
You are in Swedish waters at last"

/ Dsus4 - - - / / / C Em A - / C G Am G / 
   / C - Fadd9 - / C D G Em / C Em D - - - /

   Seven thousands of Jews smuggled over to Sweden
   By fishermen, nurses, and priests
   Hitler sends Eichmann to hunt them down
   But his quarry have vanished like mist
   When the war's over the Jews return
   Cheers and flowers adorn their way home
   "We're not heroes or martyrs," so say the Danes
   "We were just looking after our own"

{Refrain}

And today we will welcome you home
And today we welcome you home

... / C D G A / C D G - /
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