Peat Bog Soldiers

Performed by Paul Robeson

[Even before the start of World War II, Nazi Germany maintained labor camps for political opponents of the Third Reich, primarily socialists and communists. In many such camps, the prisoners’ hard labor was to harvest peat from the surrounding moors.  This song was the marching dirge of the internees in the Boergermoor camp as they walked to the bogs each day. It has become a well-known protest song throughout Europe.]

 

 

Far and wide as the eye can wander
Heath and bog are everywhere
Not a bird sings out to cheer us
Oaks are standing gaunt and bare.

We are the peat bog soldiers,
Marching with our spades to the bog.

Up and down the guards are pacing,
No one, no one can go through.
Flight would mean a sure death facing,
Guns and barbed wire greet our view.

We are the peat bog soldiers,
Marching with our spades to the bog.

But for us there is no complaining,
Winter will in time be past.
One day we shall cry rejoicing.
Homeland, dear, you’re mine at last.

Then will the peat bogs soldiers,
March no more with spades to the bog.

Songwriters: Johann Esser / Rudi Goguel / Wolfgang Langhoff, 1933