THE SONG OF THE FAITHFUL
Verses by Unknown Members of the Hitler Youth in Austria,
Written During the Years 1933-37.
[Das Lied der Getreuen. Verse ungennanter österreichischer Hitler-Jugend aus den Jahren der Verfolgung 1933-37 (Leipzig: Philipp Reclam jun., Verlag, 1938).]
In Praise of the Führer
- We often heard the sound of your voice
- And listened silently, with folded hands,
- As each word sank into our souls.
- We all know: The day will come
- That frees us from need and compulsion.
- What is a year!
- What is a law that would restrain us —
- The pure faith that you have given us
- Pulses through, guides our young lives.
- My Führer, you alone are the way, the goal!
Adolf Hitler
- Two men are joined as one in you:
- One seems cold and hard,
- One who achieves his goals.
- Another is tender and kind,
- He forgets not even the poorest.
- He feels for the least of us.
- Two streams owe their strength to you.
- You are the sap rising from each root,
- The seed that gives them birth —
- A new spirit rose from you,
- That forged us together as a nation
- And dwells in us forever!
Our Führer
- There are so many people who bless you,
- Even if their blessing is a silent one —
- There are so many who have never met you,
- And yet you are their Savior
- .
- When you speak to your German people,
- The words go across the land
- And sink into countless hearts,
- Hearts in which your image long has stood.
- Sometimes the vision of you brings life
- To those in the midst of hard labor and heavy obligation …
- So many are devoted to you
- And seek in your spirit a clear light.
Thoughts on the Führer
- Often you must feel alone, all by yourself,
- When you think of the mission you must fulfill.
- Your deeds are far beyond what others do,
- Yet you seek still greater goals.
- We can never reach your heights,
- All we can do is follow down your way,
- And our banner with its symbol of the sun
- Is under your leadership, under your guidance.
- Each word that you have given us,
- Each look that you have sent our way,
- Has cleansed us, led us
- Given new light to our lives’ paths.
- —————
- And should some day you be no longer with us
- Your spirit will yet endure —
- It will carry our children
- Into a new age!
- Your pure strength rests not alone
- In your living word,
- But now that we have found their source
- They are the German people’s treasure.
- Those words it was that first awakened us,
- From dull brooding, hollow death —
- We can no longer perish,
- A light burns for us in the night!
German Girls Address the Führer!
- We are the door that leads to the future.
- We are the tree on which fruit ripens,
- That which inspires us, that which is holy to us,
- Is planted once again, strong and pure,
- No one can take it from our soul.
- We carry in our hearts the light
- You spread to your people,
- We want to be its loyal guardians,
- Passing it on pure, unchanged,
- Through our bodies into new life.
A Request
- Should our future turn out otherwise,
- Than we with our young eyes today expect,
- If we must bear our heavy burdens
- For many long years to come,
- If many Mays will come like this one,
- And if our houses bear no festive decorations,
- If like now the sun must long shine
- Without our flags flying throughout the land.
- If that should be I have but one request,
- That we should have a mighty miracle,
- So that the old, who have suffered so much,
- May once again look into our Führer’s eyes.
- Then they will not have to die
- In uncertainty and desperation,
- Then they will have a happy confidence in victory
- To carry them through their final dying days.