The Megaphone

It’s certainly true that the times
Are grave and sad,
The harsh wartime events
Dispel cheerfulness.

But yet one often has to laugh
When one reads in the newspapers
The lies and fairytales
From the hand of Dr Goebbels

However bad the situation
Currently is for Germany,
He persists: We will definitely
Achieve the victory.

Today I saw a photo
And in that photo stood
A German in a trench
And with both his hands

He held to his mouth
A large megaphone
And Göbbels commented
Quite beautifully on this image:

The man calls out to the Russians:
End your fight soon
You are already defeated,
Acknowledge this fact.

Your sacrifices of people
And materials are useless,
The German triumph
Cannot be stopped.

Countless Soviets
Have heard the megaphone
And quickly surrendered
To the words of propaganda.

But I say: Herr Göbbels,
I believe, that is not true
And make my own commentary
On this photo.

I believe the surrender
Of the Russians is a fact,
They devote themselves totally
To their fight for liberation.

Their rage against the
German army is unleashed,
Ten lines higher I read:
The German front is shortening.

Maybe this German calls out:
Russia, don’t follow too quickly,
And don’t shoot too fiercely,
We will progress on our own.

Perhaps he calls through his microphone
A greeting from Adolf
To the imprisoned PaulusFriedrich Paulus (1890–1957) was a German army officer and commander-in-chief of the 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. He was a Soviet prisoner of war from 1943 to 1953.:
I am not doing well.

It‘s also possible
That he calls: Bolshevik!
It becomes too elastic for me,
Soon the rubber band will snap!

But as I look closer,
And observe the photo,
I find it’s not a photo,
But an allegory.

A symbol of the German fighting,
The situation is not healthy,
For in recent times
They fight only with their mouth.