Prisoner - Dick Gaughan

Half a thousand, half a hundred

Six times two, pick up your pen

Child, my child, count it up now

That’s the number that I mean

It’s a number, just a number

One of hundreds, a sign of shame

Each man’s jacket had a number

Men had numbers, none had names

Hitler’s system took their freedom

Took them prisoner, one by one

For the courage of their convictions

They were tortured, gassed and burned

They took communist, they took pacifist

They took social democrat

Jew and Christian all were prisoner

In the concntration camp

To the camp of Esterwegen

Listen child and understand

They took Carl von Ossietsky

And broke his body — but not his mind

In Berlin upon the 4th of May

19 hundred and 38

The Gestapo with its treatment

Signed his death certificate

Five-six-two his prison number

Listen, child, I beg you please

Keep in mind, always remember

He got the Nobel Prize for Peace

In the struggle against injustice

He fought hard and he fought long

Child — remember Ossietsky

Peace won’t come by words alone