[beebuster2000]

what was the original punk reference? was it also to the holocaust?

[wideawake]

what was the original punk reference? was it also to the holocaust?

Absolutely. It was a song about the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp apparently written from the viewpoint of an SS guard who was happy to be assigned there because it was a plum assignment safe behind enemy lines and a guard could steal as much loot as he could carry from the victims.

The British were very proud of their role in liberating the death camp, and a punk singer singing from the viewpoint of one of England's most despised enemies was designed to shock and offend the proper English establishment that the punks hated.

Basically it paints a tableaux of a fat, greedy Nazi REMF killing Jews for fun and profit.

I believe that the original Sex Pistols vocalist Johnny Rotten admits the song was indefensible.

[wideawake]

There was also a punk group from Los Angeles called The Vandals who wrote a song called "Dachau Cabana" to the tune of Barry Manilow's Copacabana, in which Manilow's protagonists of Lola and Rico are replaced by Anne Frank and an SS camp guard.

Making fun of the Holocaust was very hip in the punk scene in the early years.

Of course, now that The Vandals have launched profitable reunion tours they have distanced themselves from that side of their legacy and refuse to perform the song or acknowledge its existence.