From the recording OceanSongs' "Ballads" Sampler

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Child of the War

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My mother spent her childhood years growing up in Germany during the rise and fall of the Nazi era. She witnessed and lived through the saturation bombing of her hometown Stuttgart. Thousands of German children were killed in the cross fire. Afterwards, she never came to grips with what her parents’ generation did, and died at 75 denying the holocaust.

Lyrics

CHILD OF THE WAR by Jim Ocean

Frost hung in the air
And everywhere there were fine parades
She stood on a chair
And watched the flags wave
A girl of thirteen
What a time to be in Germany
In the war she was weaned
Such a strange puberty

She was a child of the war
Forced to grow up much too fast
A child of the war
Struggling with her past

The basement walls were cold
And a candle was their only heat
All the bread smelled of mold
During the Nazi retreat
And when the lights went out
And explosions rocked the cellar door
In the morning she’d look out
At the scars of the war

She was a child of the war
Listening to the planes at night
A child of the war
Turning out the light

Living down inside the ground, the ground
Hiding from the sky, the sky
Deadly, deadly was the moon at night
That lit, that lit her lullabies
Spring winds blew chill
For flowers those days
The bombs fell in April
Leaving ashes in May

And when the smoke had cleared
And the swastikas were hid from view
She served the Yankees beer
And they talked of the Jews
And when the truth was told
She laughed at such a silly tale
Still wearing the blindfold
She felt her cheeks pale

She was a child of the war
Trying hard to not believe
A child of the war
With her memories