They All Sang the Internationale

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