Ballad of the Doomed Jew of Europe

Ballad of the Doomed Jew of Europe

Published as a paid advertisement by the "Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews"

in The New York Times, Tuesday September 14, 1943

Reproduced in America and the Holocaust, Volume 5, editor: David S. Wyman, Gerland Publishing Inc., 1990. Document No. 62

By Ben Hecht

Four Million Jews waiting for death

Oh hang and burn but - quiet, Jews!

Don't be bothersome; save you breath -

The world is busy with other news.

Four million murders are quite a smear

Even our State Department views

The slaughter with much disfavor here

But then - it's busy with other news.

You'll hang like a forest of broken trees

You'll burn in a thousand Nazi stews

And tell your G-d to forgive us please

For we were busy with other news.

Tell Him we hadn't quite the time

To stop the killing of all the Jews;

Tell Him we looked askance at the crime -

But we were busy with other news.

Oh World be patient - it will take

Some time before the murder crews

Are done. By Christmas you can make

Your Peace on Earth without the Jews