POEM - A SONG FOR HITLER

During WW2 one way in which the British dealt with the threats and actions of the German Nazis was through humour. There was a song, sung to the tune, I believe, of Colonel Bogie, that said 'Hitler has only got one ball' and went on to claim that 'Goering has two but very small', then 'Himmler is somewhat similar' and finally, 'Poor old Goebbels has no balls at all'. I've always thought that this song came out of a special government department in charge of national morale - and it worked pretty well ... at the time.
Recently watching Simon Schama's 'History of the Jews' I saw him telling the story of how, in the Ukraine, the Nazi Army had treated all the Jews in one village. It was so foul, unbelievably foul, that I could not get it out of my mind. And then the song came back to me and I was struck by its utter impotence in the face of true, satanic, evil. Hence the villanelle that follows:
(Poem first performed in Oundle on 22 October 2013)

 

A SONG FOR HITLER

The stomach churning smells of evil still remain.

The comic song that put you in the music hall.

Still smeared across our minds there is a stain.

 

Your singularity gives us that strange refrain.
Reminds us that you only had one ball.
The stomach churning smells of evil still remain.

Your sidekick was endowed, we’re told, with twain;

The song says Goering had two but very small.

Still smeared across our minds there is a stain.

 

Himmler’s scrotum a pair of tiny testes did contain;

So, ‘somewhat  similar’,  the words I do recall.

The stomach churning smells of evil still remain.

 

And Goebbels, like his three confreres, incurably insane,

Driven so perhaps by having none at all.

Still smeared across our minds there is a stain.

 

We laughed as we sang but never laughed again.

The revelations that would the whole wide world appal.

The stomach churning smells of evil still remain.

Still smeared across our minds there is a stain.