"Night" lyrics

White covered the ground in the early morning
Saw the sun comin up over the dead horizon
I just stood right there, waiting for my mind
But before it showed up, I thought today, maybe freedom will be mine

I drift to spring '44, they came to our land
The man on the street told us what's at hand
We wrote him off, said his mind weren't right
Soon enough there wasn't any more light

They moved to our small town, started pushing us down
Locked our leaders in cells and took our money and crowns
Then they took our homes, moved us to barbed wire blocks
Slow but sure, they shipped us off in trains of cattle carts

On board was Madame Schacter and her ten year son
In the night she started screaming bout the fire to come
Called her crazy too, bound and gagged her from fright
But she broke free so the boys used their boots to keep her quiet

I watched as twilight fell and it never lifted
And the gates of Hell opened wide
It seemed like God turned and left us abandoned
And the world passed into the night

Today we arrived at Auschwitz station
We'll remain alive that's what the locals are sayin'
Then we moved down the line into Birkenau's wires
There we found what Schacter said wasn't a lie

They had built vast towers to carry the flames
From there came an odor that we could not name
And Mr. Mengele stood and made his choice
Me and pop were sent left and thought it was our time to be made void

We walked towards pits of burning infants, mass graves where our brothers lied
While the others prayed I screamed why did you forsake
And plunge us into the night

We then found ourselves standing in the barracks line
Stripped, shaved, and showered and clothed in a striped design
Treated like dogs, completely dehumanized
Shown no mercy even by the Kapo of our kind

Housed in Auschwitz for 3 weeks more
Hidden in darkness staring at death's door
Then we moved on to Buna, worked our fingers to the bone
All the while faith is slipping wondering how much more

The summer came, atrocities were suffered
More than 100 lifetimes should ever have to weather
God was put on trial and hung from the gallows
In the form of a child who just wanted no more wires

Winter brought hope as the Russians drew closer
The sick of which I was part seemed doomed to slaughter
So I chose evacuation and left with the others
Then the Red Army came and made the infirm survivors

We ran all night, 42 snowy miles
Anyone who stopped met his end
Stopped and huddled in a shed clinging to cold life
And we waited for roofless trains in the night

Now here I stand in this car repeating how much more
I've just seen 88 men reduced to stacks of frozen bone
Now it's Buchenwald's walls where I'll spend the months to come
And on 4/11/45 liberation is finally done

The next several weeks I called a hospital home
Tried to nurse me back to health from a food poisoned stone
Looked into a mirror and all I saw
Was a corpse gazing back at me, was I any more?

I watched as twilight fell and it never lifted
And the gates of Hell opened wide
It seemed like God turned and left us abandoned
And the world passed into the night