The Frightened Girl

The sky was a wave of blackness, dusted with twinkling stars
The air was thick with danger, and the rumbling of distant cars
The trees moaned with a dreadful pain, in the midst of the holocaust
And the frightened girl came running,
Running-running
The frightened girl came running, her hopes were not yet lost.

She’d a tattered dress made of old cloth, a gold star sewn at the chest
Under the branches she hurried and dashed, up to a shed to rest
she crept around the corner, and who should be sitting there
but the Nazi soldier’s daughter
Ann, the soldier’s daughter
Weaving a French braid into, the locks of her golden hair.

She turned and saw the frightened girl, and heard herself exclaim:
“You must be cold and terrified; I won’t hurt you, you can stay
Though if they come and find you, they’ll take us both away
So look for me by midnight,
watch for me by midnight,
I’ll come to thee by midnight, though the law should bar the way.”

Ann did not come in the dawn’s light. She did not come before noon,
When the sun’s comforting beams of light were conquered by the moon,
When the trees moaned with a dreadful pain, in the midst of the holocaust
A cold, black troop came marching
Marching-marching
Hitler’s men came marching, up to the old shed loft.

They did not knock on the old door, they kicked it down instead
Then they seized the girl and dragged her to the door of the narrow shed
And as she was forced from the shelter, she saw the girl that betrayed.
The Nazi soldier’s daughter,
Ann, the soldier’s daughter,
Walking along with the troopers, a hardened look on her face.

The frightened girl cried out for mercy, as they kicked her down to the ground
And Ann looked on the girl with a hidden regret, dreading the horrible sound
As the troopers exposed their rifle guns, and pointed them at the girl’s chest
And her eyes met Ann in the moonlight,
Shining with betrayal in the moonlight
As the trigger was pulled in the moonlight, a single tear ran down her face.

And still on a gloomy night, they say, amongst rumblings of distant cars,
When the sky is a wave of blackness, dusted with twinkling stars,
When the trees moan with a dreadful guilt, in memory of the holocaust
A frightened girl comes running,
Running-running
A frightened girl comes running, her hopes are not yet lost.

Her gold star shines in the moonlight, reflecting the hole through her chest
Under the branches she dashes and darts, to the shed where she once did rest,
She creeps around the corner, to visit the girl who betrayed
The Nazi soldier’s daughter
Ann, the soldier’s daughter
Lamenting the loss of the frightened girl, the girl she could have saved.