Belsen Was a Gas

"Belsen Was a Gas" is one of the most controversial songs by the British punk rock band Sex Pistols. The song is about one of the concentration camps in Germany during World War II, ie. Bergen-Belsen, which was liberated by British troops in 1945, [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3557000/3557341.stm |title=15 April 1945: British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen |work=On This Day |publisher=bbc.co.uk] and was consequently more well-known in that country than similar camps in Eastern Europe (Belsen is also mentioned in their song "Holidays in the Sun").

Composer controversy

It is claimed to have been written by bassist Sid Vicious while in his earlier band The Flowers of Romance. According to hearsay Sid wrote it as a joke; in an interview he claimed that when writing the song he was trying to be ironic. Its title is a pun on the Zyklon B gas used in many camps; "Belsen was a Gas", "a Gas" being 1960s/1970s street slang for "great". In fact, few died at Belsen from gassing: most died from the brutal treatment at the hands of the guards or as a result of the typhus epidemic that swept through the camp in late 1944.

The song has been accused of being anti-semitic, although it was in fact simply black humour designed to offend that generation then in charge of running the country who had grown up during the years of World War Two, and for whom the Holocaust was an extremely sensitive subject (there was in fact a popular BBC1 TV series about the Holocaust being broadcast during 1976 and repeated during 1977).

Belsen held a particular place of horror in the older British generation's psyche because Nazi propaganda films had systematically portrayed the camp in the early stages of the Nazi regime (particularly for the foreign press) as being a well run camp for Jewish families trying to emigrate out of Nazi Germany (something seized upon by Nazi apologists within the UK such as Oswald Mosley) - this was in horrifying contrast to what British troops discovered upon its liberation in 1945 (many suffered from nightmares for years after). There had been further outrage when newsreels showed the captured camp staff responsible smiling and laughing, particularly during their trial at Nuremberg.

Once taken in context with other Sex Pistols songs of the same period that lampooned the monarchy ("God Save the Queen") and attacked the practice of abortions being carried out on women being detained under the Mental Health Act without their consent ("Bodies"), it is clear that the song was another attempt by the group to outrage that generation they believed were responsible for many of the ills within Britain at that time by writing about highly sensitive or controversial subject matter. Sid Vicious often wore a swastika shirt for the shock value and in keeping with the musical "Cabaret"'s style of dress for members of the Kit-Kat Club adopted by members of the Bromley Contingent. "Cabaret" was popular amongst the early punk rock movement, because many saw similarities in 1970s Britain with the last chaotic years of the Weimar Republic this musical was set in.

Many of the lyrics describing in blunt tones the bare facts of what occurred. The opening lines are:

: Belsen was a gas, I heard the other day: In the open graves where the Jews all lay: "Life is fun and I wish you were here": they wrote on postcards to those held dear.

The song appears in two versions on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle album, first a live version from the Sex Pistols' last concert (San Francisco, January 14, 1978), then in an altered studio version with Ronnie Biggs on vocals. Biggs insisted on altering the lyrics - he later claimed as he'd read the published diary of Anne Frank, Belsen's most famous victim - with an additional verse. The second verse describes some of the treatment Jews received:

: Dentists searched their teeth for gold: Frisk the Jews for banknotes fold: When they found out what they'd got,: "Line them up and shoot the lot".

On most versions of the album, the live version is listed in Gothic script as "Einmal Belsen war vortrefflich" and Biggs' version is "Einmal Belsen war wirklich vortrefflich"; these grammatically erroneous German titles translate more or less as "Once, Belsen was brilliant" and "Once, Belsen was really brilliant". The first UK sleeve gave the titles as "Belsen Was a Gas" and "Belsen wos a gassa".

Other versions

For years it was thought that the Pistols had only played the song live, but it has recently been discovered that a studio version was recorded in late 1977. However, it has since been lostFact|date=September 2008.

When Sex Pistols reformed for a reunion tour of the U.S. in 2003, after the start of the Iraq War, they performed an adapted version of the song, called "Baghdad Was a Blast", as an attack on President Bush's policies in the region. At the first of the band's Brixton Academy shows in November 2007, the film was performed in a further adapted version, this time as "Brixton Was a Blast".

Many Sex Pistols fans think that if the band had stayed together, "Belsen" would have been their first single of 1978. It is rumoured that another song, "Sod in Heaven", would have been the B-side. The song is said to have been played only once, used as a sound check when the Pistols were at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas on January 10, 1978. However, technical personnel who were present at the sound check state that "Problems" was the song played. "Sod in Heaven" may have become the song "Religion" by John Lydon's group Public Image Limited. PiL played "Belsen" at some of their earliest gigs.

The second version with Ronnie Biggs was originally slated to be a single, but after the airplay and record shop ban on the earlier single No One Is Innocent (due to Biggs being the lead vocalist) this idea was dropped.

Sid Vicious, allegedly being one of the composers, performed and released the song on his sole solo album Sid Sings.

Bell Canada Controversy

Canada's biggest phone company, Bell Canada, apologized on September 14, 2007 after billboard ads for their Solo cellphone discount service showed a young woman decked out in flashy punk rock attire, with a button that read "Belsen was a gas". Spokesman Mark Langton said that Bell officials approved the ads after examining sample images that were smaller than the final billboards, in which the text of the button could not be made out. [cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/09/14/bell-holocaust.html |title=Bell pulls ad with reference to Holocaust, apologizes |publisher=CBC News]

References