https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/track/they-all-sang-the-internationale

They All Sang the Internationale
from The Other Side by David Rovics

When I heard some stories about a friend's grandparents in Hamburg, Germany, I was moved to verse, twice. This is the song I wrote about her grandmother and namesake, Katharina Jacob. Particularly about the morning of her liberation from her Nazi captors by Russian troops.
lyrics
Katharina Jacob, long before she took that name
Was organizing workers in Hamburg just the same
Organizing beneath the flag of deepest red
A new dawn of peace and freedom clearly shining in her head

Katharina Jacob first was sent to jail
When the trappings of democracy all began to fail
She was frequently arrested, in and out of custody
While her first husband was in hiding from the Nazis

Katharina Jacob was acquitted of a crime
But the gestapo had the last word and they weren't finished with her this time
She was sent to Ravensbrück, a killing hunger at her side
She heard of the execution, how her second husband died

For Katharina Jacob the end was close at hand
She was on a death march with a ragged, starving band
Marching through a forest, being led by the SS
What would happen hours later seemed impossible to guess

When the sun rose the next morning, it was the first of May
And they all sang the Internationale
And they all sang the Internationale

Katharina Jacob thought about her children
And the friends and comrades taking care of them
Not knowing yet if any of them survived
Not knowing that soon she'd see her daughters both alive

Katharina Jacob watched the German soldiers fleeing
Streaming from the east, that's what she was seeing
Allied bombers flew above them, she thought they all might die and then
Soon there was the silence of all the SS men

Chorus

Katharina Jacob saw red flags flapping in the breeze
Above the Russian tanks and she fell upon her knees
And so many different voices in so many different tongues
Sang the most beautiful song that could ever have been sung

In German, Lithuanian, in Polish and in Dutch
A myriad of melodies as never had been such
In Russian and in Yiddish, Italian and French
Emerging from the forests beneath a trench

Chorus

Völker, hört die Signale! Auf zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale erkämpft das Menschenrecht
Völker, hört die Signale! Auf zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale – erkämpft das Menschenrecht

Stand up, all victims of oppression,
For the tyrants fear your might!
Don't cling so hard to your possessions,
For you have nothing if you have no rights!
Let racist ignorance be ended,
For respect makes the empires fall!
Freedom is merely privilege extended,
Unless enjoyed by one and all.
So come brothers and sisters,
For the struggle carries on.
The Internationale
Unites the world in song.
So comrades, come rally,
For this is the time and place!
The international ideal
Unites the human race.

So inspiring.

And it was removed as the Soviet anthem in 1944-Stalin thought it was "too French", and replaced it with the arrogant dirge Putin still uses as the Russian anthem.

Therefore, singing "The Internationale" is actually an anti-Stalinist, anti-totalitarian act, a statement of support for a world ultimately freed of all oppression.

The song itself is still a hymn of freedom, and should still be sung as a vision of hope.

And the freaking Cold War is over. The Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore, China is probably more capitalist than we are at this stage, and those challenging the status quo today are free of any association with "The God That Failed".

And the song that I posted was about inmates at a Nazi concentration camp singing that song at the moment they realized they were free. They weren't saying "yay, purge trials!". They were saying "we lived, and the dream we were imprisoned for lived with us".

If it had been American tanks liberating them, they'd have probably sung the Banner.

Besides which, the clip you're showing is from the Gorbachev era, and Mikhail Gorbachev did everything he could to end repression. For his troubles, for his courage, for his agreement to do the decent, humane thing over and over, he was humiliated by Reagan and Bush and was treated simply as a soft, vanquished enemy. The man did nothing to deserve being made to play the role of the vanquished.

It's right-wing to anathemize The Internationale simply because people twisted its words of liberation to suit their agenda.

Stalin proved what he really thought of it by removing it as the Soviet anthem.

Nobody's defending the damn Gulag, and Communism of the sort you're speaking of no longer exists.

Please respect the historic experience of the people depicted in the song. It's not your place to judge their choice of music.

The Cold War is the dead past.

And since 1944, the Soviet and then Russian anthem has actually been THIS:

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So please...just stop.

You're disrespecting people who risked their lives to fight fascism.

If I did want you wanted and deleted the song, I'd be saying their heroism was worthy of no honor.

"The Internationale" was not the cause of Stalinism, and there would inevitably have been somebody like Stalin and Mao in this century even if no one on the planet had risen against the existing order.

Sorry, Tovarisch!

And you know perfectly well I'm not a CP type, so...redbaiting? really?

With the endorsement of the worst things some people did after perverting the ideals of the son

The Internationale is NOT to blame for Stalin or Stalinism and everyone knows that.

The Internationale is an anthem of hope, and has effectively been an anti-Stalinist anthem since Stalin removed it as the Soviet national anthem.


I was simply paying tribute to heroes of the antifascist struggle by posting the song David Rovics posted about them.

So don't be surprised and attack just because someone points that context out.

It lost any association with Stalin and his crimes when Stalin removed it as the Soviet national anthem.

The song itself is blameless.

You knew perfectly well I wasn't paying tribute to what the Stalinists did.

... as a not-so-subtle way to compare the Democratic Party with East German Stalinism.

For those who don't know about it, here's a quick review: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lied_der_Partei

Hoo boy! That was such an offensive comparison.

Fun times, eh?

Last edited Sun Dec 10, 2017, 10:57 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029563252

... it ended up being deleted. Still, it's interesting to read the responses and reactions in context of the deleted post.

Looking back, and in comparison to what one sees today, the whole thing (rationale, justification and excuse-making pattern) seems so familiar and repetitive.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9560063