It was the third single from their debut album, Fredericks Goldman Jones, and was released in July 1991.

An English version exists in which Fredericks and Jones sing in their native language.

[citation needed] In this song, the three singers are wondering if they would have acted differently if they had been in the situation of Germans after the 1918 defeat and during the rise of Nazism (stating that the composer, Jean-Jacques Goldman, had Polish and Jewish origins and that his mother is German), or in that of Northern Irish who were into civil war, or if they would show more solidarity with blacks if they were born as being white and rich in Johannesburg, South Africa.

[3] In the English-speaking countries, the song was released in a bilingual version (French / English) entitled "Born in 1917 in Leidenstadt".

The song was covered in 2000 by Michel Leclerc (instrumental version), and by Le Collège de l'Esterel in 2002.