Commandant Koch and his underlings never missed a chance to demean and punish Jews with all possible cruelty. Consider another Buchenwald song – the ‘Judenlied’ or ‘Jew Song.’From August 1939 on, there were three camp songs officially allowed by the SS: The Buchenwald Song, the Judenlied, and the Esterwegen Camp Song (named after another camp, and for which I don’t have the words.)
The Judenlied was sung exclusively by Jewish inmates, never by choice and always as punishment or public derision as the SS stood by. It consists of five verses:
All we did was profiteer, profiteer and lie
Now our crooked broker hands must do their first real work.
We are generally known by our ugly faces.
We frauds of the nation long dreaded what has become reality overnight.
Now our crooked Jew noses are mourning.
One survivor recalled a day on which Jewish inmates had to stand until midnight (presumably after a 12 hour work day) singing the Jew Song for four hours on end. All the while, German soldiers walked through the ranks to ensure everyone was singing.
Note – I did not find a recording for this song – but then who would want to memorialize this horrid tune?
Henry never mentioned either the Buchenwald or Judenlied songs when he spoke of Buchenwald music. It is either that his fortunate circumstances working as a stonemason, rather than marching out on a daily work crew saved him the drudge of singing it every morning. Or it could simply be we ran out of time for every possible topic of the camp. But I do believe if it had been significant for Henry he’d have mentioned it.
The songs remain unique to Buchenwald.
The songs remain unique to Buchenwald.