I am the star that slept on your floor
I am the star that lays fallen before the heavens
I am the star on which you see the sun at night
I am your star, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin
Elli was thirteen
'38, Berlin Weißensee1
The father is not allowed to work as pediatrician2
He no longer knows how this is supposed to go on
The mother dreams of Herzl's3 Old New Land4 –
Palestine5
His heart is set on Germany
On the Germany of Rilke6, Mann7 and Schubert8
Not on the Germany that allows this fear here (to reign)9
He will send her away
It is inevitable
'38
The last days in September10
Berlin, Anhalter Bahnhof11
She beckons the father through the pane and they depart
He shouts after her that one is not to shed tears
When traveling to the land of one's (ancestral) fathers12
She does not understand right away what that means
Was not she leaving the father behind, at this very platform?
And the world becomes blurred before her eyes
Sinking into "for good" and "never again"
And they drive into the night
She falls asleep as she feels him keeping watch over her
And in her dream he has got wings
She dreams that he flies to the south
Following her onto peace
Onto Tel Aviv, Mound of Spring13
I am the star that slept on your floor
I am the star that lays fallen before the heavens
I am the star on which you see the sun at night
I am your star, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin
Eight days and eight nights on a boat
While the November storm is raging
Here above the sea and at home in Berlin14
Due to (a lack of) 1000 pound sterling the father is no longer able to flee
And she, expelled into this cold world,
Is praying to a God she calls into question
While she is counting the days
That she is not holding the father in her arms
And she takes lavish care of the remaining things from home:
The volume of Rilke, some clothes, her violin
Throughout her voyage, escape without refuge,
Only this fear of the future (is left)
And he refuses to believe it till they stand in front of the house at night
But they do beat and do plunder, they do arrest thousand
'38, Sachsenhausen15
A letter from Tel Aviv, he is just pleased that they got out
The little Elli Weinreb
And this homesickness, will it ever pass?
For the lost land, there in the promised land16
And she dreams herself far away
And in her dream she has got wings
She dreams that she flies off from the south
Flies back onto peace
Onto Berlin, from the Mounds of Spring
I am the star that slept on your floor
I am the star that lays fallen before the heavens
I am the star on which you see the sun at night
I am your star, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin
I am the star that you were looking for so long
I am the star, the sparkling through the boughs
I am lost, in the smoke17 across the landscape
I am your star, Berlin, Berlin
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weissensee_(Berlin)2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_in_the_time_of_National_Socialism#P...3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_New_Land5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke7. Either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Mann8. There have been many famous people that went by the surname of Schubert in Germany and Austria. It's hard to tell which one is meant; most likely Franz Schubert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert). Some of them you will find here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schubert_(surname)9. another possible translation would be "...the Germany that tolerates/countenances this fear here"10. A chronology of events that happened in September of 1938: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938#September11. A former railway terminus in Berlin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhalter_Bahnhof12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eretz_Yisrael13. That is the literal translation of "Tel Aviv".14. A reference to the "Kristallnacht": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land17. A reference to the smoking chimneys of the camps' crematorias.