I first came to this country In Spring of 1904 A lonely Jew from Warsaw Never here before We sailed into the harbor On the 17th of May I disembarked with other Poles Bound for the USA They looked me up, they looked me down And much to my surprise They asked about my family They checked my mouth, my eyes They put a chalk mark on my coat My papers stamped and clear Was shuffled through an exit And I suddenly was here In America Your torchlight shines afar In America Like a shining, distant star Here is where I wait to take my place Here, in this land of hope and grace In America I got a job, got married We had three kids of our own Thirty-five years came and went This place is now my home Poland's just a memory Half a world away But still my heart was torn apart With what I read today Nazis marching in the street And fires everywhere The Polish army vanquished And terror in the air Too many to remember We'll never know their names People who look just like me Are loaded on to trains But here in America The torchlight shines afar In America Like a shining, distant star Here is where I'd come to take my place Here, in this land of hope and grace In America It all seems like a nightmare now Although we know it's true The horrors people have endured The evil some can do To me now in these later days The lessons are so clear It cannot be forgotten And it cannot happen here In America Our torchlight shines afar In America Like a shining, distant star Here is where we've come to take our place Here, in this land of hope and grace In America