They whispered first, "The danger’s near,
Protect the flag, protect the land."
With trembling hands and stoked-up fear
They crowned a tyrant, fierce and grand.
The papers screamed of foes within,
While neighbors nodded, played along.
They dressed up cruelty as win,
And taught the children right was wrong.
Laws were penned with sly disguise,
Freedom shrank with each decree.
They jailed the truth and fed the lies,
And sold it all as liberty.
They bragged about the one pure race,
Right arms outstretched, their hate aflame.
While camps were built - a brutal place
For those they marked with ruthless shame.
The laws got sharper, paper-thin,
"Protect traditions!" they proclaimed,
But what they meant was: purge the sin
Of every soul they tagged and named.
It grew not fast, no, slow, routine,
A creeping dread behind the cheer,
But hate was polished - sharp, obscene,
And marching boots drowned out the fear.
They taught the crowd to praise each lie,
To hail the fiend disguised as saint.
And if one dared to ask them why;
They'd brand the voice as treason's taint.
The jackboots marched, elections gone,
Press was muzzled, chained, and whipped.
The terror just kept marching on,
And people's freedom cleanly stripped.
A flag was waved, the crowd obeyed,
To chants of order, pride, and might,
While cages filled with those they’d preyed,
And mercy withered from their sight.
But wait - this doesn’t echo past,
Not Berlin’s streets, not Auschwitz’s gates,
It’s in the headlines, crisp and fast;
It's happening now in the States.
See, silence writes the tyrant’s song!
Don’t wait for others, YOU'RE the fight,
So here’s your call: be loud, be strong,
So march, and shout, and claim the night.
It’s not just borders, flags, or pride,
This fight is one this world must share,
If freedom falls and truth has died,
No corner’s safe, not anywhere.
Don’t wait, don’t whisper; shout it clear!
Spread truth so none believe the lies;
Unite the world, let all ears hear!
We fight as one, as one we rise.
As Auschwitz whispers through the years,
A million voices etched in flame.
Their souls demand our rage, our tears,
So history won't repeat its shame!
I know, I know - I'm usually the funny one, so this one might sting and be unexpected.
See... All my life, I’ve carried two questions: How could the Holocaust happen? And why did no one stop it?
Growing up in Germany, those questions were never far away. I learned about the Holocaust pretty early. I visited the camps.
Neuengamme.
Bergen-Belsen.
Dachau.
Mauthausen.
And the one that scorched itself into my whole being - Auschwitz.
The gas chamber still stands. The place where Jews were led in, told they were going to take a shower.
But there was no water.
Only gas.
The walls are brick and stone; cold, and unforgetting. And on those walls are deep scratches. Not made by tools. Made by human fingernails. I traced them with my own fingers, trying to understand the panic, the terror, the desperate fight for breath that left marks on stone.
In school, we spent hours in those lessons. Because Germany refuses to let history repeat itself. We don’t sugarcoat. We don’t hide it behind excuses about protecting kids from TrAuMa.
By ninth grade, we were reading Anne Frank’s diary. We watched Schindler's List. Did it traumatize me? No. It BROKE me. It made me cry. And it made me ask: How? Why? Why did no one act until it was too late?
At first, I told myself it must have been the media. It was wartime. The world didn’t know. There was no internet. Information wasn't spread as fast as it is today.
But looking around now, watching history echo in real time, watching governments bend to tariffs, corporations bow for profit, and leaders stay silent - I can no longer believe that excuse.
The world DID know back then.
The world DOES know today.
And still it looks away.
Why don’t the governments of the world stand together and say, "Not again. Not with us." Why do they tremble instead of act? Why do they cower before consequences instead of leading with courage?
The answer is as terrifying as it is simple.
No one acts because everyone is waiting for someone else to act first.
They’re afraid to face it alone.
So they stay silent.
But we are not alone.
Here I am.
Just one voice.
But there are over eight billion of us. And every single voice matters.
So I am asking you: add yours.
Be loud.
Be unafraid.
Not for me.
Not just for them.
But for all of us.
For freedom.
For justice.
Let our voices be loud enough to drown his lies, to shatter his throne, to break his chains, and to write a peaceful future.
Do not let silence write the tyrant's song.
Not again.