Exile

This song is dedicated to the healing and processing of my family history. It captures the painful moment of my Danube Swabian family's forced expulsion from Mucsi 🇭🇺 It is historically important to note that the vast majority of these expelled families, including those from Mucsi, were simple farmers and loyal Hungarian citizens. They were not „National Socialists“ and had nothing to do with Nazi ideology or its crimes. After the war, they became victims of 'collective guilt.' The government used their German cultural heritage (They had lived in Hungary since the 18.th century) as an excuse to strip them of their human rights, steal their lands, and deport them. Those who died on these transports were innocent victims, not perpetrators. ————————————————————————— When looking at the entire flight and expulsion of the roughly 12 to 14 million Germans from across Eastern and Central Europe, the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) today confirm at least 600,000 documented fatalities, while older historical estimates even ranged as high as 2 million deaths. These figures reflect exclusively civil casualties—innocent women, children, and elderly people who died during the deportation waves—and do not include any soldiers who fell during the war. May they rest in peace 🙏🏽🕯️🌹🕊️ ————————————————- [Verse 1] The year was forty-six, a shadow on the sun They gave my family thirty minutes after the terror had begun The gendarmes at the doorstep, the wooden wagons wait My family left our fields, our homes, thrown into an unknown fate The stable doors were open, the abandoned cattle cried A long and desperate weeping through the countryside And trailing down the dusty road, beneath the burning sky The family dog was chasing fast, but forced to be left behind [Chorus] Driven from our Hungarian home, out into the heat Locked inside the cattle cars, to the iron rhythm's beat Deported in the wagons, while the air was suffocating But the spirit of the Danube flows forever in our kin [Verse 2] The women stood in dignity, beneath the heavy load Seven layered petticoats upon the iron road In caps and traditional long gowns, they reached a foreign land And hunger met our families with a cold and bitter hand Fourteen souls inside one room, no blanket and no peace And in the dark, they suffered silent crimes that never found release The German folks pointed their fingers, they called them names of shame In Hungary deported as Danube Germans, in Germany a foreign name [Chorus] Driven from our Hungarian home, out into the heat Locked inside the cattle cars, to the iron rhythm's beat Deported in the wagons, while the air was suffocating But the spirit of the Danube flows forever in our kin [Outro] We never chose the German banners nor ever chose their war Just simple farmers from Hungary, now weeping on a foreign floor The wagons rolled in sorrow, across the fading light And some who left the valley... didn't make it through the night [End]