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Brendan Nolan - Packing Her Bag

from Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song by Various Artists

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about

A whistle blows as a train leaves Frankfurt, Germany, in October 1941. A teenage Jewish girl on board has quickly gathered her precious possessions into a bag, not knowing what to pack for a destination unknown to her. After a two-day journey, this train would arrive at the Łódź Ghetto in Poland.

lyrics

Forced to leave her Frankfurt home
She’s summoned to the train
With only hours to pack a bag
No one to explain

How long the trip, the weather there
Belongings she would need
Mother packed some candlesticks
Fresh-baked bread to eat

Yes, she said to ballet shoes
Doubted pas de deux
But left behind her warmest boots
Without the proper clues

Tossed her frayed and favorite dress
No room in her small bags
“Relocating to the east”
She’d soon be wearing rags

She held her piano music sheets
Beethoven and Brahms
Picked her slimmest book of prayers
Not leaving without Psalms

Rainer Maria Rilke’s poems
Goethe for the rail
Not knowing all she’d really need
Were water and a pail

Wrapped in woolen winter skirt
To cover her bare knees
She wore her coat, warm-up suit
Dying by degrees

She buried asthma medicine
Scant supply prescribed
She’d learn to breathe a lethal air
With treatment improvised

In truth she’d need a dose of luck
Skills to measure food
A sleuth to get her a slice of bread
A star that named her Jude

She pressed her life into a satchel
Filled with her precious stuff
But to survive in Ghetto Łódź
Things were not enough

Forced to leave her Frankfurt home
She’s summoned to the train
With only hours to pack a bag
No one to explain


Jude (German): Jew

credits

from Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song, released July 20, 2022
Music by: Brendan Nolan
Lyrics by: Holly Mandelkern

Vocals, guitar, and bodhrán: Brendan Nolan
Fiddle and whistle: Colin Farrell

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Beneath White Stars Winter Park, Florida

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