English subtitles for clip: File:The True Story of Lili Marlene (1944).webm

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''*Opening music*''

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Lili Marlene is the name of a song.
The story of Lili Marlene, well

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it is a sort of fairy story really,
only it is a true story as well.

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When the fighting men come home,
they bring with them trophies 

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and souvenirs of the war, 
The Second World War. 

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But there's one trophy that you will only find
in the homes of the 8th army

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the disk of a German song, Lili Marleen.

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''*Original song of Lili Marleen begins playing*
The lyrics are in German.''

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This trophy was captured in the Libyan desert
in the Autumn of 1942.

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But the history of Lili Marleen 
takes us back to the year 1923

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to the time when the men of the 8th army was still children.

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''*Man reads the sign*''
These captured German guns commemorate the devotion to duty...

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and the achievements of those who fought
for their country in the Great War 
of 1914 and 1918.

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In Germany, 1923 was a strange year.

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Inflation had reduced the country to a stage 
where money and even life itself had lost all meaning. 

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And in 1923, out of this chaos,

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Hitler made its first attempt to gain 
power out of the streets of Munich.

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National Socialism or the Nazi Party 
came from the South. 

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But in the North, and particularly in Hamburg, 
they stuck at democracy.  

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Hamburg, as the matter of fact
 was the last German stronghold 
to fold before Hitler’s attack

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and it was in Hamburg, then the largest
port in the world that Lili Marlene was born. 

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''*man reads the poem in German*''

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''*The poem is now read in English*''
''In the dark of evening,''

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''where you stand and wait''

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''hangs a lantern, 
gleaming by the barrack gate.'' 

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''We’ll meet again by lantern shine, 
as we did once upon a time,'' 

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''we two, Lili Marlene, 
we two, Lili Marlene''

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The music of Lili Marlene was written in 1938. 

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''*Piano notes from the Lili Marleen tune*''

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The first person to sing the song 
was a little Swedish girl 

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called Lale Andersen when 
she was working at a nightclub in Berlin. 

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''*Female Singer starts singing Lili Marlene in English*''

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''*German crowd chants “Sieg Heil” to cheer Hitler*''

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At that time, nobody paid any attention 
either to Lale Andersen or to the song.

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It was the first year of the War and 
the German soldiers were given purely military music. 

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''*military music is playing*''

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In the Autumn of 1940, 
after the fall of France, 

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the German formed their 
famous Afrika Korps.

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And they sent it into battle 
with their own special song 

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Panzer rollen in Afrika vor 
(Panzers Advance in Afrika). 

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Lili Marlene and Lale Andersen 
were still unknown.

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Their first real appearance 
was in the Spring of 1941. 

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The German Reich is 
from this morning 

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in a state of war against
 the Ustasha of Belgrade.

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In the bombing of Belgrade, 

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the Luftwaffe had contrived 
to leave the radio station more or less untouched. 

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Among the first troops to arrive there 
was the so-called Propaganda company 

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consisting of War correspondents, 
newsreel camera men 

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and particularly, radio engineers. 

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Their orders were to proceed to the
radio station which had been captured by Resistance, 

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make contact with a 5th column inside 
the station and begin broadcasting at once. 

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But first, they had to be sure 
who was in charge of the station. 

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Patriots or the 5th column. 

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The propaganda company had tommy guns
issued to it as well as radio apparatus.

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''*hammer sounds*''

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''*Hammer sound intensifies*''

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“Heil Hitler” 
“Heil Hitler” 

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''*men speak German*''

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''*The German soldiers introduce 
themselves as the Propaganda Company*''

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The 5th column, but even with 
that help there was a rush to get going. 

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The lights were off but the station 
had its own power of transmission. 

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Among the luggage of the Propaganda Company, 
there was a suitcase of gramophone records 

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to broadcast in  the gaps between 
the communiqués and propaganda talks. 

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''*German officer knocks for hammer to stop*''

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Here is the Belgrade Rundfunk, this is 
Radio Belgrade transmitting for the first time in German. 

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''*man speaks German*''

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The Nazi plan was to use Belgrade 
as the Deutsche Soldatensender 

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that is to say a radio station 
of programs for the German troops. 

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''*Officer asks for the record in German*''

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The door

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And now, to end our first broadcast, 
one more record : Lili Marlene, sung by Lale Andersen. 

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Lili Marlene.

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''*song is playing in English*''

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From the first moment, Lili Marleen
was a smash hit within the German troops

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From Africa, the occupied territories, 
the U-boots,

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Letters came pouring in
asking about that song 

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with a girl, a sentry and
a the lantern.

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In Berlin, they exploited this enthusiasm 
and they build a program around the song: 

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a messages from home program 
to the forces of the front.

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What’s more, this was just a moment  funny. 
From the same month, in June 1941, 

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they opened up a new front, 
a front a thousand miles longer: the Russian front.

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This is the Deutsche Soldatensender Belgrade. 

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Tonight, we present you a new radio feature: 
the young sentry of Belgrade.

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From Russia to the Atlantic wall, 
the sentry calls you one and all, 

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from Norway and to Africa the log is open, 
here we are, 

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we meet outside the barracks are, 
and find our loved ones waiting there.

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We call Oberfeldwebel Karl Hoffman.

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Oberführer 49276R 

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and the greetings from mamy and dad, 
and a big kiss from his love.

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And the singer, the little Swedish nightclub, 
what had become of her?

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''*Singer sings Lili Marlene in English*''

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Tonight is the anniversary of the opening 
of the Young sentry program

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 from the Deutsche Soldatensender Belgrade, 

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and tonight is officially announced that from 
the forces alone, more than one million Reichsmarks 

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have been donated to the Lale Andersen Winterily fund.

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''*Woman sings Lili Marlene in English*''

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The popularity of Lili Marlene spreads
 with the victories of the glorious Wehrmacht. 

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Only last week, the 150th Lale 
Andersen *** was opened in Germany 

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and a statue of Lili Marlene 
was erected on the Smolensk route.

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''*Lili Marlene sung in the background*''

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While the Bolsheviks enemies are being beaten 
on the Eastern Front the last strongholds 

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of British imperialism are crumbling 
under the onslaught of Generalfeldmarschall Rommel 

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and the *** division of **** have accepted 
Lili Marlene as their battle song.

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In a few weeks ****, **** the fall of Stalingrad
will have open the **** to the East. 

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This evening, 
at the Berlin's State Opera House, 

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******* Emmy Goering will by special request 
include Lili Marlene in their program. 

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''*Opera singer is singing Lili Marlene in German*''

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On July the 4th of 1942, 
the 8th Army held the line at El-Alamein. 

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It was here that Denis Johnson at the BBC 
found our men also listening to Lale Andersen. 

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There weren’t many radios out forward in the battle area 
except probably the one in our recording truck. 

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And we used to turn on the news 
every night, listen to it 

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and we’d sit there with nothing to be seeing 
at all except the glow from the dial of the radio. 

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And from these trucks it was all 
in the desert, fifty yards apart. 

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Chaps would come in when 
they heard the radio coming across the sand.

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All alike, like birds coming in around 
the lighthouse. They’d sit around and listen 

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to the news and you’d see the glow from their cigarettes 
and their pipes, and this little dial on the radio.

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And after the news was over,we turned over 
to this messages home program from Germany and listen. 

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Before long ago “oompa oompa” and there was Marlene.

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''*Lili Marlene begins playing*''

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''*Radio host speaks in German*''

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… they say farewell to each other 
and the sentinel closes his logbook 

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and once more the strains of 
Lili Marlene floats through the night. 

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Home, home, home.

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It's a funny thing the way 
the Germans of all people

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are sentimental about home

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But they seem to forget that
other people have homes too.

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The 8th Army, the Russians, the oppressed 
people of Europe, they all have homes. 

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We will see whose home thoughts 
serve them best. 

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''*loud firing guns*''

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This is Dennis Johnson here, 
and the recording here is from the desert 

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and and you mustn’t hear me because 
I’m shooting across a bunch of British guns.

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Standing here in the moonlight 
it’s the most amazing panorama

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 from miles to North to South, in great silly circles, there are 
all sorts of flashes, and barages are pumped in the air. 

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Yes, the artillery barrage is lifting, 
and tanks are coming forward. 

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I can see Grants, whole loads 
of Shermans and ****. 

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And behind them ****, full of infantry, infantry going up 
to Division, following the tanks for going out after the barrage. 

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''*Lili Marleen tune is playing*''

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''*Soldiers are singing Lili Marlene*''

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As the 8th Army swept on to ***, 
capturing on its way 800 miles of desert, 

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75 000 prisoners, 5 000 tanks, 1 000 guns 
and the famous enemy song of Lili Marlene.  

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''*Lili Marleen's tune continues playing in the background*'' 

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The German radio continued to broadcast 
Lili Marlene to the men of the front. 

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But it had other listeners as well. 

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Listeners in Britain, 

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people to whom the famous song was 
just one more piece of enemy propaganda   

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to be taken down and analyzed in sober quiet. 

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The BBC.
''*Lili Marlene is playing in the background*''

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Then came Stalingrad. 

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*Gun firing*

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The struggle for Stalingrad has ended. 

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The 6th army under the exemplary leadership 
of General FeldMarshall Von Paulus 

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has had to succumbed to the numerical 
superiority of the enemy and to adverse conditions.

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Paulus surrendered before Stalingrad 
on the 2nd of February 1943. 

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That night, the Berlin Radio announced a three-day closing 
of all entertainments, cinemas, theaters, and all ***s. 

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And the tune of Lili Marlene 
which had been heard for 

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500 consecutive nights on the 
Belgrade Radio was still in the silence. 

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The next day, the 3rd of February, 
something even more astonishing happened. 

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From a neutral country, there came word 
that Lale Andersen was in a concentration camp. 

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She had been sending messages home to Sweden.

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All I want is to get out of this terrible country.

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There is no time for singing, 

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we can whisper only and 
listen to the enemy 

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and resist.

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''*Big Ben bells are ringing*''

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Night was our chance.  

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Now it was the BBC’s turn to send a
message from Lale Andersen to the German troops.

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*Music begins playing*

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To send the tune back to Germany.

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The same tune but with different words 

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and a different singer: Lucy Mannheim.

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''*Lucy Mannheim in English*''
The letter of Lili Marlene written 
to a young sentry on the Eastern Front. 

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''My heart is sad and weary as I write this today'' 

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''for life is grey and dreary since you have marched away.''  

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''You say “I’m a soldier, it must be" ''

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''but that can’t bring no health to me,'' 

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''I’m waiting by the lantern. 
Your own Lili Marlene.'' 

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''You men’s dead, I hear it. 
It graves the Russian snow.'' 

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''Yes, die you must! I fear it, 
for Hitler’s will that’s all.'' 

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''Oh could we only meet once more, 
our country free of shame and war,''

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''and then beneath the lantern 
we too, Lili Marlene.''

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''Fuhrer I thank and greet you 
for you are good and wise.'' 

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''Widows often meet you 
with hollow silent eyes,'' 

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''Hitler the man of blood and fear.'' 

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''Hang him up on the lantern here!''

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''Hang him up from the lantern!''

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''Oh Fuhrer Lili Marlene.''

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But that is not the end of the story of Lili Marlene. 

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Well Lili Marlene I thought this all the way up.

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When we got to there **** the song 
was getting pretty popular, 

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and the Battalion ran it constantly, 
well one of our chaps sang it right away, 

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and after that we would all sing it.

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Eventually we got to Sicily 
and more Lili Marlene. 

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They had it in the cafés there, 

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The Italians, The Italians of course sang. 
They also sing good. 

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We also had our own one written 
for the song and on the whole 

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I think the boys would rather think of
Lili Marlene as the 8th army battle song.

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''*a man is singing a soldier's version of Lili Marleen in English*''

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Lili Marlene was born in 
the docks in Hamburg 

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and then she went to Berlin, 
and then flew to Belgrade. 

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She was sent to the desert and was captured. 

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And then, she was transformed and marched 
with the Armies of liberation into the heart of Europe. 

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''*Lili Marlene tune resumes in the background*''

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''*British soldiers sing the chorus together*''

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Now look into the future: peace.

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Come to the London docks on a 
Saturday night in peace time.

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Here you will find the scene set 
for the last appearance of Lili Marlene.

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''*Lili Marlene tune begins playing
amidst loud, celebratory and cheery crowd"''

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When the blackout is lifted and 
the lights of London are relit 

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and the shining domes of 
Stalingrad are being rebuilt, 

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then the true people and the real joys 
of life will come into their own again, 

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and the famous tune of Lili Marlene 
will linger in the hearts of the 8th Army. 

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As a trophy of victory 

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and as a memory of the last war 

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to remind us all to sweep fascism off the face of Earth 

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and to make it really the last war.