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This song relates to two stories which became intertwined in October 2014. It is being released as a single to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz/Birkenau on January 27th 1945 and to raise funds for the Holocaust Education Trust. All proceeds go to the charity.

I was part of a group from Queen Alexandria 6th Form College in North Shields who joined students from across the North East of England on a day visit to the death camp organised by HET. In one of the huts there is a huge pile of discarded suitcases which belonged to the victims. Klara Goldstein’s name is prominent on one of the suitcases.

How old was Klara? Where did she come from? What did she dream of? Did she live or die in the death camp? These are the questions I asked on a wet October day as the rain fell relentlessly. In order to make sense of the enormity of what happened in that place I felt compelled to write the song.

In another hut, a quotation by philosopher, George Santayana, is prominent: “The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again”. As the number of survivors who can tell their tale first-hand dwindles, the work of HET to educate future generations about the Holocaust becomes ever more relevant. The song ends by reflecting sadly that history has repeated itself throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

As an historical footnote, subsequent research shows that Klara (24), from Vienna, died in Birkenau sometime after October 9th 1944 just a few short weeks before the death camp’s liberation by the advancing British army.