IN TIME THE TRUTH WILL OUT
Copyright © Geoff Allnutt (The Speech Painter) 1998

 

 

When I saw the picture I saw a metaphor
For the practice of neutrality during war

It was of a Swiss made wristwatch circa 1939
The movement still working, still keeping time

A picture of Hitler was there on the dial
That much maligned moustache; a face with no smile

The Great Dictator that Chaplin made comic
Who burned in a bunker as the world went atomic

Was there on a wristwatch that Switzerland made
Neutral in war yet proactive in trade

The watch was simple with a case of steel
And the cartoon not funny but angry and real

The movement was by A.Schield calibre 151
A thumb size Fuhrer; a wrist full of fun

A once cheap object now extremely rare
Hitler's collectable at the antique fair

Popular with the punters at the auction house
Keep time with Adolf and not some dumb mouse

One size fits all, it's ready to wear
Strap it to your wrist, listen if you dare

Listen to its ticking, listen to its breathing
Listen to its beating heart, still bitter, cold and seething

Hear the train moving and the balance swinging
Hear time knocked out, hear the mechanism ringing

Hear the voice of the watch count out each hour
Feel the force of the spring wound to full power

Trapped inside a barrel wanting to unwind
Forced to work constantly, a slave to mankind

The voice of the watch is trying to speak
But it's tired and old and faint and weak

18,000 beats an hour is the speed of its heart
And once it is stopped it may never restart

So listen to its story as it turns back time
To expose the true horror of Switzerland's crime

Neutrality in war makes sound business sense
Without killing make a killing whilst sitting on the fence

The precedent was set during the Thirty Year War
Switzerland set back and watched the profits soar

Always pleased with Napoleon at least til Waterloo
The bottom line in battle is the interest you accrue

World War Two was an opportunity just too good to miss
And confidential bank accounts were the weapons of the Swiss

A good export business will keep down inflation
And their money in your bank protects your population

So they dealt with the Allies and sold to the Axis
Kept eating chocolate, paid Europe's lowest taxes

They demanded the right to trade with Japan
Well a very small country must earn all it can

A very small country must protect its independence
By accepting the friendship of those in ascendance

So the Swiss turned a blind eye to the Third Reich goal
Mindful of the need for their iron oil and coal

Dug from the Rhineland by captured slave labour
The Swiss sold spare electric to its Aryan neighbour

As well as ball bearings and clutch couplings for tanks
Guns and chemicals earned the millions of Francs

An army can march but an army needs backing
So they financed arms for Blitzkrieg attacking

Made anti-aircraft instruments and parts for V1 rockets
London burned as bankers in Berne relaxed and lined their pockets

They filled their vaults with stolen gold
That the Nazis resmelted and then resold

To pay back the loans on Swiss- made munitions
That prolonged the war kept alive their ambitions

Now the gold that Switzerland stuffed in its vaults
was not rightfully theirs, but theirs by default

It was stolen from those the Germans defeated
Too heavy to move as the quickly retreated

Once in German hands it was stored then recast
And passed to the Swiss with no Questions asked

But there was an even more sinister trade
The details of which they'd later evade

Far more shocking than trading in guns
Worse than secreting top Nazis' funds

Was Switzerland's conduct to the European Jews
And the thousands of accounts they managed to lose

As the last country in Europe to grant political rights
The Swiss were at best apathetic to the Jewish plight

At worst its institutions were accomplished and complicit
In dealing and concealing the illegal and illicit

Despite detailed knowledge of Hitler's orders
They turned back Jews as they crossed their borders

Bankers tipped off Nazis about hidden Jewish assets
And artifacts and art works and Antwerp's diamond facets

Were exchanged in Switzerland's main railway stations
As the Diaspora disembarked at death camp destinations

To be sacrificed and slaughtered to Hitler's crazed obsessions
Funding their own genocide with their asset-stripped possessions

Wedding rings from fingers watches from the wrist
Dental gold from out their mouths, not a single piece was missed

The best of Swiss- made watches stolen from the Jews
Were cleaned and put aside for top SS to use

With military precision the trains all ran on time
The watches only following orders- precision by design

And trains with tons of gold left concentration camps
To terminate in Switzerland with bogus pre-war stamps

The Swiss still convinced the Germans would win
Kept their mouths shut as the money rolled in

Recalling the proverb good children are told
That speaking is silver, to be silent is gold

And when Germany lost, the banks played their ace
As thousands of accounts disappeared without trace

And Jewish survivors who went to withdraw
Their parents' deposits from before the war

Were met by clerks who spoke with regret
That proof of death was needed- a death certificate

So the rightful heirs got nothing but bureaucratic persecution
Because Auschwitz didn't issue them at the doors of execution

And as the memories shrink as time expands
Hitler heils once more with the watch's hands

The simple watch that was built in the Jura
Watches the Swiss and keeps time for the Fuhrer

Swiss time is slow, over fifty years behind
As the coils of the mainspring slowly unwind

The watch's action is slow and sluggish
But its voice is audible, raucous and thuggish

laughing in wonder and sheer disbelief
At solid gold watches from old Jewish teeth

Carefully observing the watch's faint dial
The tight thin lips break a wry smile

Until the banks' time-locks start unlocking
Hitler speaks with his voice still mocking

Until all that are owed are paid their dues
The world still spins to his twisted views

The case may be complex, but it will not be dropped
The truth may be slow, but it will not be stopped

Copyright © Geoff Allnutt (The Speech Painter) 1998