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Belsen Was A Gas"Belsen Was A Gas" is one of the most controversial songs by the British punk band the Sex Pistols. The song is about the concentration camps in Germany during World War II, specifically Bergen-Belsen, which was liberated by British troops in 1945, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3557000/3557341.stm 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"). Its title is a pun on the Zyklon B gas used in Belsen and other camps. The song is generally seen as being anti-semitic, and while it has been defended as not necessarily being blatantly so, the overall tone is not sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, and does not attack the Nazis. On the other hand, many of the lyrics can be read as a statement of fact, describing what happened in the holocaust, if in a somewhat dismissive tone. The opening lines are: - Belsen was a gas, I heard the other day
- In the open graves where the Jews all lay
The song was written by bassist Sid Vicious, who was known to wear a swastika shirt just for the shock value, and it is likely that this song was another example of trying to be shocking and controversial. The band recorded an extended version of the song with Ronnie Biggs on vocals, with two additional verses. The second verse describes some of the treatment Jews received, being stripped of their valuables and having their gold fillings extracted from their teeth. The final lines are highly problematic: - When they find out what they've got,
- Line them up and shoot the lot.
If an implied "they" is put before the final line, the meaning is made merely a statement of fact. However, without such a word it reads as an encouragement or order. For years it was thought that the Pistols had only played the song live while Johnny Rotten was still with the band, but it has recently been discovered that a studio version was recorded in late 1977. However, it has since been lost. When the 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 Gas", as an attack on President Bush's policies in the region. Many Sex Pistols fans think that if the band had stayed together, "Belsen" would have been their first single of 1978. It is rumored that another Sid song, "Sod In Heaven", would have been the B-side. "Sod In Heaven" is said to have been played only once, used as a sound check when the Pistols where at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, January 10, 1978. "Sod In Heaven" became the song "Religion" by Johnny Rotten's Public Image Limited.
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