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Arbeit Macht Frei
There is the
sun. Still yellowed and faded by the smoke but there it is pale in
the white sky.
They are here and does it matter that they have
come too late for the Cohens and the Lieberwitzes the Kaufmans and the
Morgensterns, they are here.
Sarah Stern still breathes in
desperation raises one skeletal hand in salute but the soldier turns
away and cannot look.
We hang our heads we cannot meet their
eyes. It is wrong to look into the eyes of the victors this is the
lesson of the day.
And what is free and what does freedom mean.
A scab, picked from a festering wound is free but leaves the septic
puss embedded in the tissue.
The soldier sees our nakedness and
we see his naked pity Which is more revolting. Are we to blame for our
lack of courage. Sheep can only bleat but when the axe falls are silent.
Is there respite? Those who survived who turned up their ragged
sleeves to show the numbers to the cameras, who took the chocolate bars
and did not see the shame in the soldier's eyes will never know
cannot believe that they survived to tell their story to a world
that has long since become deaf.
And on another day will the
soldier's grand children's children see the hermetically sealed remains;
the hair, the limbs, the false teeth and the spectacles and will these
generations yet to come understand, without the smell the cold, bring
them only in winter, the bitter, sad sounds.
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