Elise Thomsen was born in 1901
In a world so often so awfully undone
When the civil war began in Spain
Elise was one of the ones on the train
To Barcelona, she organized care
For all of the orphans, where
Ever they had come from, she said
From person to person, they shall be fed
While so many hearts, burn with rage
When love seems like something from a bygone age
We must have reconciliation
And that can start, with feeding these children
When they came to Denmark, to survive
Fleeing for their lives
Communists, anarchists or Jews
Whatever accusations in the news
Didn’t matter to anyone who
|Had the deeply felt point of view
That everyone else matters
Even when the world is shattered
Chorus
And when the refugees weren't dissidents
But regular civilian residents
Of those that occupied them for years
In the strange ways that history steers
The sovereign Danish authorities
And others in that traumatized country
Said they are not welcome in our land
And any group who helps them will be banned
Diseased, without medical care
Thirteen thousand Germans there
Died in the camps, in 1945
Mostly freezing kids who’d not survive
Despite all the opposition, Elise knew
With other Quakers, pacifists, feminists, too
Someone had to help these kids
Though it was against the law, that’s what they did
Chorus
