ABSTRACT
One day, right after our daily roll call, the barrack head was summoned to the gate to appear before the rapportführer. He was told that from now on the Jews would have to sing a new song, every day, on the appelplatz, called “Das Juden Lied” (“The Song of the Jews”). They had one week in which to learn it. And so it was. No matter how tired we were, no matter how cold or hot the weather, in rain or snow, we had to sing the song. It was a humiliating song that made fun of us and we all hated it, especially the German Jews, who had, at one time, taken great pride in being part of the German nation. In a sense, the German Jews probably found singing this song to be a worse punishment than being beaten. I remember, in particular, the reaction of Professor Heinemann, who considered himself far enough removed from his Jewish ancestors to be an Aryan. When he heard the words of the song, tears rolled down his cheeks. He was in shock. When the time came to actually sing the words, many Jews couldn’t bring themselves to do so. They were immediately taken out of the line by the stubediensts and beaten into submission. After a while, we got used to the idea, everyone sang it, and the words became something of a bitter joke to us:
