Between the Sola and the Vistula crammed
Between swamps, guard chains, barbed wire
Lies Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the cursed nest
That inmates hate like an evil plague.

Where there is malaria, typhus and other things
Where great anguish eats at your heart,
Where thousands upon thousands are imprisoned
Far from their homeland, far from wife and child.

You see rows of buildings rise built by inmates
Through storm and rain you have to carry bricks and sand
Block after block springs up, for thousands of men
All of this for those who are yet to come.

Sadly you see columns pass you by
You can often see fathers, brothers there
You aren’t allowed to say hello, that will mean their death
To do so you involuntarily increase their woe.

Sadly you see the columns walk by
The commands resound on the left, two three
You have no right to say anything here.
When you often want to scream for help.

Along with lice and fleas, fever rages,
Many thousands have already perished miserably,
Indeed you are tormented here night and day
And your every step is watched by guards.

Father, mother are you home by now?
No one suspects our heartache
Here you are only allowed to dream of a home
From where fate shamelessly drove you out.

Should I never see you again, my country
And like so many thousands go up the chimney,
Hail, my beloved family and friends there
Think of me from time to time, who was forced to leave.

Written by a Slovakian girl in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
In 1942 from the first transports.