GERMANY: As Long as She Sings

Hard on the heels of the scare story that the U.S. was invading Germany with the Colorado beetle, the Communists spread another fantastic tale: the “Amis” (Americans) had mined the Rhine’s big Lorelei rock†so that they could blow it into the river, creating a dam which they could later break to flood the flat lower Rhineland. Last week the Communists followed through with a singing commercial over Berlin’s Red radio station:

Go home Ami, Ami go home,

Spalt für den Frieden dein Atom,

Sag goodbye dem Vater Rhein,

Rühr nicht an sein Töchterlein . . .

Lorelei, so lang du singst,

Wird Deutschland sein.

(Go home, Ami, Ami go home,

Split your atom for peace.

Say goodbye to Father Rhine,

And touch not his little daughter.

Lorelei, as long as you keep singing,

Germany will live.)

†Named for the fabled siren who sat atop the rock, clad chiefly in her golden tresses which she kept combing with a golden comb. This was calculated to distract sailors, who invariably foundered their boats on the rock and drowned.