The Beauty of Austria Shattered

I remember the dream of Austria As the war for me was finally closing High in my turret upon the Sherman I entered this mountain paradise at last Until I reached the earthly gates of hell Within those eyes I found despair That spark of life long dead Their hearts filled of solitudes poison Muted voices no longer calling out Thousands of souls starving for hope Existing amongst corpses who had lost it Now just shadows of the once proud Crushed by tyranny simply because they “were” Empty men drifting about lost in a miring haze Praying for the peace only death grants So very few seemed to hold onto humanity They had nothing to fear because all was lost As I stood at the hells gates called Mauthausen In that moment I found the truest of evils Under the threshold of Hades a toxoid of hatred Not truly comprehending what my eyes spoke Numbed in fears I never knew subsisted within me Standing frozen I wanted nothing more than to run As the shell of that crying man fell in my arms I am haunted by his words…”godheid bedanken” My faith transfused giving him a moments hope Within those high peaks of the songs of paradise I lost my soul at the gates of a concentration camp Every night since I hear his voice thanking God He called us the wrath and thunder of reckoning But…I was just a boy with rifle searching for a respite