it was a cold september in '39
when the germans crossed that polish line
nazi fire neath a polish kettle
bound to destroy my little schetyl
polish antisemitism...ther'es a shock

my schtetly'd been around for generations
through all kinds of cartographic variations
some times we was poles, sometimes russian
now it looks like were bound to be prussian.
i miss being russian though. the winters are cold, but they sure do throw a heck of a pogrom

well my dad told us keds not to fear,
no matter what happened he'd allways be here
well the very next night they come for paw, and the rest of us got sent to warsaw.
ghetto that is, cess pools, yeller stars.

well i used to raise rabbits in our pretty little meadow
now i hunt rats in the gutter of the ghetto
boil it ups with some tsimmis in the kitchen
both of them taste a bit like chicken
glatt kosher, Duration style

well one day you wake up and there you are
in the middle of the ghetto wearing the star
then without no warning or preperation
an SS guard shouts "liquidation!!"
whoo hoo everything must go.
if you ask me its time for an uprising of somekind.

well they loaded us on boxcars 3 miles long
i thought i heard yossi singing a song
s'hma yisroael adonai elohenu
although if it were up to me i''dve picked dienu
box car yossi we call him...well called him.

there was an achtung baby and a squeel of brakes
what a difference 3 days in a boxcar can make
barbed wire as far as my eyes can see
and a big old sign that says "work makes you free"
germans and canadians are both pure evil, but at least the germans understand irony

but i didn't have time to soak in the scene
right away with the yelling and the german and the mean
in the head of the day i was startin to schvitz
but my sweat turned cold when the man said welcome to auchwitz
hard to believe but i missed warsaw.

well we stood all day till it turned to night
a man with a stick saying left and right
i stayed with yossi till it was just him and me
he says did you ever see such a big chimmney?
family plans, up in smoke.

i looked where bubba and sis used to be
seen'em walking toward that big chimney
they looked back and said, we're gettinga shower
i wanted to save them but i didn't have the power
so i said...yitgadal v'yitgadash shemay rabal

i gotta tell you auchwitz life isn't as bad as all that
i finaly lost all my baby fat
(all my adolecent and my adult fat too)
but actually it wasn't too bad a deal
we got jobs making bombs and 3 square meals
(a month)

well i met this girl named anna who talked to much
but we all ignored her cause she spoke in dutch
people are good was all she said.
then they shipped her to bergen belsen, i hear she's now dead.

well one day i woke up and the guards were gone
next thing i knew i heard the russian bombs
6 long years of anticipation
then just like that, liberation
funny, i don't feel all that liberatied

some party boy said "jews, you're free"
we said "where should we go?" he said, "away frrom me"
not a single relative could i find,
so i figureid it was time to go see palistine.
i got off the boat still in my auchwitz attire
and to make me feel welcome they put me behind barbed wire
goodbye east europe
howdy...island of cypress
so when's that yom h'otzmahoot coming?