From: Eberhard Weber (glosys@PSNW.COM)
Date: Mon Aug 20 2001 - 23:24:35 PDT
----- Original Message ----- Thank you, Jackie - for your inputs. During "my time" I knew nothing about the song other than that it was one that everyone knew, that was on everyones lips, that I saw german soldiers sing with subdued voices in the back of a truck run with wood gas (Holzvergaser) trying to break out of an encirclement by US Troops. Sitting in the back of that truck, with candles called "Hindenburg Kerzen" propped up on 5 gallon canisters of gasoline (not as dangerous as bullets), I saw these sad faces of a beaten army singing that song as a way to visualize and romanticise a life that was but a dream in the brutal reality they would face in the morning. The haunting melody - the text which talked to the hearts of ordinary soldiers who were out on a pass far away from home, it even talked to me, and I was just a bit over 12 years old when I heard it. In fact, on Mothers day I met the lady who was my wife for 36 years before she passed away, in a steakhouse around the corner in Beverly Hills where I lived then. They had a piano bar, and people sat around that bar and sang from mimeographed lyrics the pianist handed out to any new arrival. I knew few of the songs in that booklet, having arrived from germany just months before. And not wanting to be a party-poop, I offered to sing a song, not one in that booklet. It was Lillie Marlene. It was then that my future wife arrived with mother and sister, and that was that. There is "something" in that song that touched the hearts of people, whatever their uniform. That makes that song a monument to humanity, a monument of whatever is decent within us which even the slaughter of a war cannot erradicate from our hearts. To be part of that song, part of its history and fame, must touch you in a very special way, and should. Only if you have experienced the horrors and pains of war can you imagine the soothing impact of that song on the hearts of men compelled to to fight when their heart wanted nothing more but to feel, to feel love, to love, to be loved. It was a song of mourning of the loss of decency, the loss of worth and value, the loss of innocense, the loss of roots. That melody spoke volumes, in whatever language it was song, and by whatever soldier sang it. It is a song that said that in the end it is all about humanity, and that war is all about inhumanity. It is the contrast of the haunting melody that speaks loudly and drowns out the drums and fanfare of a marching military band and all it stands for. Be proud of that heritage, my dear. Be grateful for being part of something that transcended war, almost humanized it. It was a contribution to humanity placed in the context of war. No greater contrast can we imagine, and no greater concession can we make but to have that song flow from the lips of young men on both sides of a battle line, united in what is decent and right about us. A most wonderful heritage you have - celebrate it and be grateful. That song will never age, it will never go away. Thank you for allowing me to reflect on all it stands for, at least from my perspective. Eberhard Weber The Berlin Schoolboy, in the Memory project ( timewitness) To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: timewitnesses-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/