Wood Thefts!

Firewood supply. – The acting Mayor of Goor has issued a serious warning to the residents, in which he announces that the police will take strict action with immediate effect against the unauthorized felling and transportation of firewood. The Mayor of Oldenzaal, also acting Mayor of the municipality of Losser, has made a request to the main owners of forests in connection with the increasing wood thefts, to provide firewood to the municipality in this time of fuel scarcity. – 19-10-44

Wood thefts, wood thefts,
The largest trees are falling
Under axes, under saws,
Saws grind, saws gnaw

Pines, birches, beeches, oaks,
Must fall, must give way
Must give way, must fall
Wood thefts, wood thefts!

Without coal, without peat
You‘re cold, you must dare
In the cold, you catch a cold,
And the forests and the woods

Are chopped and sawed into splinters,
Fearing the harsh winter,
And you hear the blows falling:
Wood thefts! Wood thefts!

And you hear the blows pounding,
Stumps remain from the forests
Necessity teaches praying? Necessity teaches stealing!
And out of necessity, many do today,

What they never did before,
Still better than suffering from the cold,
Straying from the right path,
Knock down trees, cut down trees.

Necessity teaches stealing, necessity breaks laws,
And they quickly finish,
With the oaks, with the pines,
People are starting to get used to it.

Many see with sorrow
On which loose ends
The society of all of us rests:
Wood thefts, wood thefts!