| My Name Is Lisa Kalvelage |
| My name is Lisa Kalvelage, I was born in Nuremberg And when the trials were held there nineteen years ago It seemed to me ridiculous to hold a nation all to blame For the horrors that the world did undergo A short while later when I applied to be a G. I. bride An American consular official questioned me He refused my exit permit, said my answers did not show I'd learned my lesson about responsibility. Thus suddenly I was forced to start thinking on this theme And when later I was permitted to emigrate I must have been asked a hundred times where I was and what I did In those years when Hitler ruled our state I said I was a child or at most a teen-ager But that only extended the questioning They'd ask, where were my parents, my father, my mother And to this I could answer not a thing. The seed planted there at Nuremberg in 1947 Started to sprout and to grow Gradually I understood what that verdict meant to me When there are crimes that I can see and I can know And now I also know what it is to be charged with mass guilt Once in a lifetime is enough for me No, I could not take it for a second time And that is why I am here today. The events of May 25th, the day of our protest, Put a small balance weight on the other side Hopefully, someday my contribution to peace Will help just a bit to turn the tide And perhaps I can tell my children six And later on their own children That at least in the future they need not be silent When they are asked, "Where was your mother, when?" |