They sang the “Buchenwald Song” more often than anything else. Composed by the Viennese songwriter Hermann Leopoldi with words by celebrated lyricist Fritz Löhner-Beda, both of whom were prisoners, it was a stirring march tune, with words extolling courage in the midst of wretchedness. It had been specially commissioned by Rödl: “All other camps have a song. We must get a Buchenwald song.”20 He’d offered a prize of ten marks to the successful composer (which was never paid) and was delighted by the result. The prisoners sang it when they marched out to work in the mornings: O
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