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's army In the Spanish Civil War Mussolini's thundering speeches Like an anvil to my sword But by the time I'd crawled home Old enough to have some doubts Il Duce took my native land And sold it to the Krauts The whole north of the country Gone to pay the Devil's due I took a job in Budapest to see the Blue Danube They had gathered at the river When into this place I came From Giorgio to Jorge I'd never be the same Raised to rally to the truth I could not well deny The death-defying logic found in living out a lie There weren't many free states left in 1942 The work was hard but legal And thank God I was no Jew But when the country's jack-boot-licking Leaders came for me I dodged the labor camps Inside the Spanish embassy His Excellency took me in with little left to lose He'd made himself a nuisance With his sympathy for Jews They'd seen him at the brickworks And beside the eastbound trains With freshly-printed papers Showing family links to Spain But just before the gendarmes Strung him up for what he did He vanished from the city And resurfaced in Madrid Forgotten in my hiding place I haunted the halls through Echoes of the rifles rising up from the Danube They had chased them to the river When into this place I came From Giorgio to Jorge I'd never be the same Raised to rally to the truth I could not well deny The death-defying logic found in living out a lie An oaken desk a golden pen And stamps that bore his name The phone rang for a morning Then fell silent once again They'd laid their stores in well - It would be a week or two Before I had to weigh the risk To starve or make a move The shots along the riverbank More frequent day by day As I sat and watched his mirrors Turn my olive skin to gray They say that if the shoe fits It should certainly be worn The clothes he left all fit me As if to the manner born The day I stepped outside my thoughts Went drifting back to Spain A stranger in that fight and now A stranger once again A pen and paper soldier I performed the work of war As Don Jorge Perlasca - Spanish Ambassador They had left them in the river When into this place I came And those along the riverbanks Would never be the same Raised to rally to the truth I could not well deny The death-defying logic found in living out a lie This story should be told until the Blue Danube runs dry Of how Giorgio Perlasca dared to question: Why?