On Refugee Day we want to tell you a story in form of a song. On 27 August 2015 Austrian police discovered a truck along the A4 highway in Austria and found 71 deceased illegal migrants, including eight children. All persons had suffocated within hours of boarding. There were no survivors.
Years before, Gerald had written an adaption of Woody Guthrie’s song Deportees. It tells exactly the story of what happened in 2015.
The chorus roughly translates as:
“Goodbye, my friend, forget that you are human,
forget who you are, and forget what you know.
When you’re illegal, you have no right and no name.
All that we know is that you’re not from here.”
In Viennese dialect:
“Pfiat di mei Freind, und vagiss, doss d a Mensch bist,
vagiss, wo du wasst, und vagiss, wos du woarst.
Wonnst illegal bist, host ka Recht und kan Nomen.
Ois wos ma wass, is, du bist net von do.”
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