Lyrics:
Just a girl with ink-stained fingers
Dreaming friends and paper wings
Wanted love like summer thunder
Wanted fame that freedom brings
Born where the rivers remember
Then the claws came for our name
We ran to Amsterdam in whispers
But the shadows followed anyway
Yellow star burning on my chest
Bicycle gone, no tram to ride
Every door that once said “welcome”
Now says “Jews forbidden” outside
I’m still breathing, still believing
In a sky that turns from grey
Even chained here, even shaking
I can feel tomorrow’s day
Oh the world is screaming murder
But my heart won’t close its eyes
I’ll keep writing through the thunder
Till my dreams outlive the lies
Three o’clock, the doorbell shattered
Margot’s face as white as bone
Father called… they want him taken
Visions of the camps alone
We ran behind that swinging bookcase
Bumped our heads and laughed through tears
Seven souls in one small secret
Trading freedom for more years
I’m still breathing, still believing
Though the nights are long and cold
In this attic full of longing
I am young but I am old
Every scream outside these windows
Cuts me deeper than a knife
Still I look up at the heavens
Still I choose another life
My hands keep shaking… they almost found us
Hammer on the bookcase, heart about to burst
Friends shaved and loaded into cattle cars
While I lie here warm… God, I feel so cursed
I see the wilderness swallowing the world
Yet when I look up at the sky…
Something whispers “hold on”
I’m still here, still dreaming
Of the girl I’ll one day be
A writer with a voice that echoes
Far beyond this misery
When the last page turns to silence
Let them find these words still burning
With a hopeful, stubborn heart…
Just a girl… dreaming friends and love…
Hoping everything will change…
I still believe… I still…
…
…
My diary falls… pages everywhere
One last breath… one last prayer…
I still believe…
Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen in March 1945
Background:
Anne Frank was a Jewish girl forced into hiding in Amsterdam during WWII to escape Nazi persecution. For 5 years, her family hid in a secret annex, where she famously kept a diary. Betrayed in 1944, she died at Bergen-Belsen. Her published diary became a globally renowned symbol of resilience and hope.
