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Listen to Ziggy Alberts ‘two gold coins & a prayer’ from ‘SFF_Demos’ – https://orcd.co/sff_demos ‘searching for freedom’ the album, out now -https://orcd.co/searchingforfreedom Design & Editing by Ria Tottszer Image by Ziggy Alberts #searchingforfreedom — Subscribe to Ziggy’s Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribetoZiggyAlberts Follow Ziggy on – Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ziggyalbertspage/ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ziggyalberts/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/ziggyjanalberts Official Website – https://ziggyalberts.com/ Listen to Ziggy’s music here – Spotify – https://goo.gl/rZQwCi Apple Music – https://goo.gl/Y5Q6C6 Google Play – http://bit.ly/ZiggyAlbertsGooglePlay #ziggyalberts — Lyrics: It started with a holiday to Italy Just Rose and the kids So, for sure they knew they wouldn’t leave Got to Vienna and they stayed for 8 months An old lady and a caravan They had a plan but never wrote it down Steve made his way to Yugoslavia And there he met a Turkish man in a coffee shop Traded passport photos The train conductor didn’t buy it though Still he let him go Hm Up in the attic lives a family Outside there in the window Today there still stands an old willow tree Albert was a dentist trying to do right over wrong Two gold coins and a prayer An American man almost became his son See Holland was under Nazi rule And they killed him for what he did Braver than most of us would do But his son came home His father wasn’t there no more So, he left for a distant shore Hm Rose came to Sydney to pray to God Because in Slovakia and Hungary under communism that wasn’t allowed Steve came for a better life Jerry and Pauline did too To the sunburnt land Where all of this they were free to do Equal opportunity is a wonderful thing But promise equal outcome It only ever leads to tyranny So here I write songs for freedom so we can all belong 7 billion people 7 billion gods I won’t give up there is too much on the line I won’t give up I ask you to free your mind I won’t give up I believe in you, and you believe in me, and We believe in society I won’t give up I promised my sister it’d be fine I won’t give up Each of us free our minds I won’t give up I believe in you, and You believe in me I believe in humanity So, I won’t give up
Zig you gotta perform this at the Toowoomba show please I’ll be your best mate
Maybe I should put it into my upcoming setlist… see you soon!
Yeeeeeeeeee new trackssss let’s goooooo .
Would love to see you perform in Vancouver BC of somewhere close like Seattle Washington 😊
He’s played there already before covid
Already in 🇵🇹 playlists
that is awesome to hear Francisco .
Wishing you well ! Z
Great one!
Thanks team <3
This is amazing zig
I’m so glad I found you, you are amazingggggg
I wanna lean to play the chords of this song its literally beautiful!
I think Darcy Piltz has a tutorial ! go check it out =) Z
To that *one* person that disliked this video, I’m pretty sure adopted
I love it how you have made your family’s story into a beautiful, rich song of thanks. Amazing Work Ziggy
a beautiful song inspired the execution of Ziggy’s great-grandfather and the book by James Keeffe, the aviator who was hiding with his great-grandfather.
I’m glad you got to see this song… how interesting the timing was for this song to be released, just a week or two after the anniversary ! thanks for getting in touch . Best wishes. Ziggy
Ziggy – You do your great grandfather’s and my father’s memory high honor with your beautiful family song. Yes, the willow tree still stands outside the attic window along Westersingel canal – a timeless image of grace and beauty that has sheltered souls during years of horror and peace. Helen, the little girl in the attic, knew the willow was there so close, even though she was denied its touch. Bless you…..(Were you able to visit the Heinenoord Museum and the Moeder Monument during the anniversary a few weeks ago?)
Jim ! I received your email, and I will reply there –
would you care to make another comment and tell your story ? I’m sure the listeners would love to hear how you and your family are connected in this song and story =) only if you’d like to =) Best wishes. Ziggy
♥️
Beautiful and chilling in light of today’s society. I’m so thankful for brave and heroic people, as those in this song, who do what is right even if the cost is their lives. We need to heed the warnings history teaches us about tyranny and how deceptive it can be in the beginning as well as being willing to to speak out early and not be a bystander. So many lives could have been saved if more people would have risked speaking out before Hitler took over most of Europe. (I found it ironic that the ad that played just before this song was Stacy Abrams warning the world about republicans evil intent to reinstall Jim Crow laws and suppress the vote! Fortunately, when I watched the video again, the ad had changed.)
thank-you for your beautiful words – crazy what gets advert space on youtube, isn’t it? take care and be well. Zig
At Ziggy’s request I will tell a brief story that relates to this beautiful song. On the 8th of March, 1944, my father, then 20-year-old Lt. James Keeffe Jr, parachuted from his stricken airplane over the Netherlands. He was an American officer of the United States Army Air Forces and a copilot of the B-24 four-engine heavy bomber stationed with the 389th Bombardment Group out of England. His airplane one was of 623 B-17 and B-24 bombers that had attacked Berlin earlier in the day. With two engines destroyed by German fighters during the mission, he and his crew were forced to bailout over the Dutch village of Papendrecht. Except for one dead gunner left in the airplane, all the airmen but my father were immediately captured by the Germans. Holland had been under the vicious occupation of the Nazis for four years by this time.
Once on the ground, my father unbuckled his parachute and quickly hid in a Dutchman’s rabbit hutch during the swift search by the Germans and was not captured. Members of the Dutch Resistance saw him enter the hutch. Later that evening they came and transported him to Rotterdam where he remained for the next five months evading from the Germans. He was given false ID by the Resistance so he could travel around right under the noses of the Germans as a young ‘Dutchman’. One of the safe houses he was invited to stay at was the home of Dr. & Mrs. Jappe-Alberts at 33a Eendrachtsweg. Dr. Alberts was Ziggy’s great-grandfather.
The Alberts were also hiding a Jewish family of four in the attic of their home. This family, the Cohens, had been hiding there for two years by the time my father came into the home. The family would come down stairs three times a day to have meals with the Alberts and then go back to the attic. Mrs. Alberts was quite a woman who was able to get enough stolen ration cards to feed not only her family but the Cohens and my father. Outside the front of the Alberts home is a willow tree. The Jewish family in the attic knew about the willow tree but could never enjoy it as they were confined to the home. My father, though, sat under the willow tree several times over the five months with various members of the Resistance. The willow tree in the photo of Ziggy’s song is that same willow. It was become a symbol of hardship, endurance, friendship, and beauty in the face of monstrous evil. Over the months, my father had many hours of conversation with Dr. Alberts and they grew to like and respect each other very much. That is what Ziggy refers to in his song when he sings, “An American man almost became his son”.
During the time my father was evading in Rotterdam, the Resistance tried unsuccessfully several times to get him out of Holland and back to England. Finally, he was taken to Breda and put on an escape route into Belgium. Unfortunately, it was a false escape line set up by the Germans. All downed Allied airmen that ended up using that line were captured in Antwerp – almost 250 total, my father being one of them. He was eventually taken to the German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag Luft III, which became notorious for the Great Escape.
Months after my father was captured, the Gestapo smashed into the Alberts’ home on the 5th of December 1944. The Jewish family was hauled up north to Westerbork concentration camp to await transport to the death chambers in Germany. Luckily, they all survived the war. Dr. Alberts and his wife and family were taken to Scheveningen Prison in The Hague. On Feb 14, 1945, an order was sent to the prison to pull out ten prisoners to be shot in reprisal for the killing of a Dutch Nazi farmer by the Resistance. Dr. Alberts was one of those ten; nine men and a ten-year-old boy. They were thrown on a truck and transferred under armed guard to the outskirts of the small town of Heinenoord and murdered in cold blood. Dr. Alberts and his wife were in prison because they bravely helped a Jewish family and an allied airman. Ultimately, Dr. Alberts, Ziggy’s great-grandfather, was murdered for his bravery. Hence Ziggy’s mournful words, “and they killed him for what he did. Braver than most of us would do.”
There is a monument at the edge of a country road near Heinenoord in memory of the ten who were shot there. On the large marble base is a bronze statue of the ten-year-old boy with his arms outstretched. He is crying out, “Mother!”. This monument is known as the Moeder Monument. Engraved on the marble base are these words, translated into English: “MOTHER – For Those Who Fell for and Because of the Resistance 1940 – 1945. How Could People Ever Annul the Wish to Live? Here Sounded the Cry of One Who Spoke for Ten Comrades.”
Sixty-five years later I wrote and published my father’s WWII story. The title of the book is ‘Two Gold Coins and a Prayer: The Epic Journey of a World War II Bomber Pilot, Evader, and POW’. The Two Gold Coins refer to two Dutch gold guilder coins a Dutchman gave my father in exchange for English pounds he had just been paid the day before his fateful bombing mission. The Dutchman warned my father that if he were caught with English pounds and wearing Dutch clothing (he had false ID at the time and was therefore a ‘Dutchman’) he would be shot as a spy. My father’s time on the ground in Holland and the many brave Dutch men and women he met there, including of course the Jappe-Alberts family, is explicitly detailed in the book. Through amazing twists of fate, Ziggy reached out to me one day stating that he was the great-grandson of Dr. Alberts, and the rest is history. The title of his beautiful song is a nod to not only my father, but also to me who wrote down his story. The story immortalizes the humanity and heroism of Ziggy’s great-grandfather and many other brave young Dutch who were murdered by the Germans in their efforts to give safety and succor to so many in desperate need. They paid the ultimate price for their bravery.
Over the years after the war, my father traveled back to Holland several times to retrace his steps and to find out what had happened to all those who had helped him. He and Mrs. Alberts kept in touch through the exchange of dozens of letters until her death in the early 1980s.
Ziggy’s song weaves a story of family, war, bravery, humanity, resettlement and a warning – “Equal opportunity is a wonderful thing. But promise equal outcome it only leads to tyranny.” This is a very wise differentiation between two seemingly identical-sounding phrases. Yet, Ziggy is right on. The first leads to freedom – the other to resentment, misery, and ultimately total loss of freedom.
Well done, Ziggy!
Cheers – Jim Keeffe III
(Son of Lt. Col. James H Keeffe Jr, USAF)