My name is Lisa Kalvelage, I was born in Nuremberg
And when the trials were held there nineteen years ago
It seemed to me ridiculous to hold a nation all to blame
For the horrors that the world did undergo

A short while later when I applied to be a G.I. bride
An American consular official questioned me
He refused my exit permit, said my answers did not show
I'd learned my lesson about responsibility

Thus suddenly, I was forced to start thinking on this theme
And when later I was permitted to emigrate
I must have been asked a hundred times
Where I was and what I did
In those years when Hitler ruled our state

I said I was a child or at most a teenager
But that only extended the questioning
They'd ask where were my parents, my father, my mother
And to this I could answer not a thing

The seed planted there at Nuremberg in 1947
Started to sprout and to grow
Gradually, I understood what that verdict meant to me
When there are crimes that I can see and I can know

And now I also know what it is to be charged with mass guilt
Once in a lifetime is enough for me
No, I could not take it for a second time
And that is why I am here today

The events of May 25th, the day of our protest
Put a small balance weight on the other side
Hopefully, someday my contribution to peace
Will help just a bit to turn the tide

And perhaps I can tell my children six
And later on their own children
That at least in the future they need not be silent