My Name Is Lisa Kalvelage Lyrics - Ani Difranco

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 

When they are asked, "Where was your mother, when?"