Excerpts & Lyrics

Chapter Eight: I Have a Name

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When we are born we are given a name, and with our name we build a life. Our identity as humans is forever connected with our name. Remove names and replace them with numbers and in so doing we become objects, nothing more than a ledger entry in a book. And, when the numbers are no longer useful, we toss them away, for it is much easier to erase a number, than to erase a name. When you are less than human in the eyes of those who count the numbers, extermination is not a complicated moral issue. However, the human spirit is powerfully resilient and that which is removed on the surface is not so easily destroyed within. Our names not only rest on our ears, but are indelibly impressed upon our souls; a gift to be cherished and guarded with love. During the Holocaust millions of Jews and other condemned people had their names removed and replaced with numbers. They suffered the ignominious fate of being de-humanized, counted and herded like beasts of burden, and then they were exterminated. Those who survived remind us all of the inextinguishable nature of the human spirit and the power of a name.

I Have a Name

Male Soloist | Female Soloist
Soloists | Full Chorus

I have a name
I have a name
And it lives in me
Quietly
Saying
I Am
I Am
I Believe

I have a name
Amen
I have a name
Amen
And you can wear me down
Take my life
But you will
Never
No Never
Take away my name

Amen, amen, amen
Hallelujah (x9)

I have a Name
I have a Name
And you will Never
No Never

Take away
My name

......Amen