Tomorrow Belongs to Me

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A lunatic Chaplin imitator
and his greatest fans

Nazism
Icon nazi.svg
First as tragedy
Then as farce

"Tomorrow Belongs to Me" (known in German as Der Morgige Tag ist Mein) is a "chilling anthem",[1] written for the 1966 musical Cabaret.Wikipedia The song has subsequently gone through various adaptations.[2]

Origins[edit]

The song was written by two Jews, John Kander and Fred Ebb.[3] [note 1] John Kander was also gay,[5] and Fred Ebb was also allegedly gay;[6] this hasn't stopped antisemitic rock bands such as Skrewdriver, Saga, and Prussian Blue[note 2] from performing it at their rallies, as it is often confused for a genuine Nazi anthem.[8] Expert on all things Nazi, Stormfront, claims: "The German folk song 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' that predates the Nazi era was adapted and slightly altered for [Cabaret]",[9] and "a rabbinical person" wrote to one of the songwriters "saying he had absolute proof it was a Nazi song"[10] (proof of a Zionist conspiracy engulfing Stormfront bit-by-bit). However, no evidence seems to have emerged for those claims.

Modern usage[edit]

It has been used for political purposes in Britain, in the form of reductio ad Hitlerum by political opponents or satirists: Satirical puppet show Spitting ImageWikipedia satirised the re-election of Margaret Thatcher with this song[11] (which apparently even some Conservatives found funny),[12] and Nigel Nelson mocked the Reich Chancellor George Osborne's budget proposals, by saying: "For one horrifying moment I thought the Chancellor might whip off his suit to reveal lederhosen and a German boy scout uniform and break into a chorus of 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me.'"[13]

It has also found the bizarre usage as an unofficial student anthem of the Computer Science of Copenhagen University in an adapted version including much student humor and computer-slang.

It is also sung by a young German Nazi scout in the first episode of the third season of The Man in the High Castle, a dystopic TV show produced by Amazon Video that narrates a parallel reality where the Nazi and the Japanese empires win World War II.

The song has often been mistakenly linked to the Quebec's sovereigntist movement. There is a Demain nous appartient ("Tomorrow belong to us") song often heard at sovereigntist rallies, but it has nothing to do with the Cabaret song as its author explained.[14]

In film[edit]

From the 1972 film adaptation of Cabaret:

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Interestingly, these two Jewish men are one of a select few Jews (including Jesus Christ) who are not marked by a JudensternWikipedia on the neo-Nazi spinoff of Wikipedia known as Metapedia (at least not on the German version)[4] for the Metapedia page on Tomorrow Belongs to Me (NSFW, unless your boss is a literal Nazi).
  2. Fraternal twins Lynx & Lamb Gaede, who comprised Prussian Blue, have since renounced their former affiliation with the White Supremacist cause.[7]

References[edit]

  1. On Stage: Goodbye Berlin, Washington Life Magazine, 26 May 2015
  2. Hailton, Andrew. Tomorrow Belongs to Me, counter-currents.com.
  3. See the Wikipedia article on Kander and Ebb.
  4. Tomorrow belongs to me Metapedia (archived from July 20, 2013).
  5. See the Wikipedia article on John Kander.
  6. Kander and Ebb (June 1, 2017) Gay Influence.
  7. Change of heart: Former Nazi teeny boppers are singing a new tune (Posted: Jul 19, 2011 8:59 AM; Updated: Jul 20, 2011 8:32 AM) KYTX (CBS19).
  8. Cabaret trivia IMDb.
  9. Tomorrow Belongs To Me Stormfront (archived from June 22, 2015). Same warning goes as for previous Metapedia link: NSFW.
  10. Tomorrow Belongs to Me (13 October 2008) Rosie Bell (Typepad)
  11. Tomorrow Belongs To Me Spitting Image Wiki.
  12. Laughing matters by Nicholas Wroe (11 April 2009 00.01 BST) The Grauniad.
  13. Budget sketch: George Osborne had a budget box full of kitchen gags but little else by Nigel Nelson (18 March 2015) The Mirror.
  14. Quebec’s Jews by Stéphane Venne (January 1978) Commentary Magazzine. Third letter.