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Far and wide as the eye can wander,
Heath and bog are everywhere;
Not a bird sings out to cheer us,
Oaks are standing gaunt and bare.
We are the peat bog soldiers,
Marching with our spades to the moor.
Up and down the guards are marching,
No one, no one can get through;
Flight would mean a sure death facing,
Guns and barbed wire block our view.
We are the peat bog soldiers,
Marching with our spades to the moor.
But for us there is no complaining,
Winter will in time be past;
One day we shall rise rejoicing,
Homeland, dear, you're mine at last.
No more the peat bog soldiers
Will march with our spades to the moor.
Recorded by Ryan's Fancy (Dark Island - A Portrait Of Ryan's Fancy ©1971, Audat Records).
See more songs by Ryan's Fancy.
Variants were also recorded by Theodore Bikel (From Bondage To Freedom, 1973); Paul Robeson (Songs Of Free Men; A Paul Robeson Recital, 1997); the Dubliners (30 Irish Favorites, 2000); and Pete Seeger (Songs Of The Spanish Civil War: Vol.1, 2006).
Notes from the Learning From History program in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: Translated from the German, "Die Moorsoldaten", this is one of the best known songs of the political resistance movement against National Socialism. Its forceful lyrics and folk melody have established it as an important historical source. There are different accounts of the song's origin, which is unusual in musicology. The reason for this may be that its authors gave only vague accounts of its origins after their release from imprisonment so they would not endanger those still in the concentration camps. All accounts of the creation of the song agree that it was composed in the summer of 1933 at the Börgermoor concentration camp, close to the town of Papenburg in the Emsland region. Börgermoor was the first Emsland concentration camp. Conditions in the camp were especially brutal and the song was written in response to brutality by camp guards. The camp commandant prohibited prisoners from singing "Die Moorsoldaten" because of its last line. Nevertheless, the song spread rapidly and became internationally known. Langhoff, Eisler, and Busch were all active in the German Communist party.
