A Historic Event
cattle trains on track to nowhere
selection …right left right left
the smell of burnt skin fear and violence
compost of history for the rose garden
gold teeth extracted prior to death
a lethal injection as an experiment
twin studies stark ‘banality of evil’
the myth of superiority and purity
‘we were only following orders'
but he gave them the Autobahns
and a wireless for everyone
‘I do not need a cemetery for my father
factory smoke stacks are everywhere’
ashes stink to high heaven and hell
numbers and tattoos are engrained forever
‘move on wayward souls we got business to do’
no funeral no grave yet many stones to turn
‘I lie awake in my nightmares and terror
count black leather-coated smiles on their faces’
ritual fails to give last rites to innocence
and it happens today just the same
18th September 2020
The Holocaust or Shoah does not really need explanation. But the victims are not numbers in a history that still displays itself today around the world in many guises. Six-millions died in the death camps.
Hannah Arendt, the great political philosopher followed the trial of Adolph Eichmann and spoke of the 'banality of evil', which alluded to the seeming ‘normality’ of the perpetrators, who were loving fathers and husbands, while acting as the devil personified.
The notion of smoke stacks instead of marked graves is credited to Wolf Biermann, the writer and singer, who lost his Jewish and Communist father in a concentration camp during the Third Reich
Contest: A Historic Event
Sponsor: William Kekaula
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