Lying at the Gate (Auschwitz)
An oldie, reworked.
“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.”
Dante Alighieri
I stand at the gate in front of Auschwitz.
My knees begin to wobble. Then they begin to buckle.
Soon, I have no legs to stand on and I am sitting on them.
I go to raise my fist, but my muscles are too weak to lift my arm.
I try to look up, but I am blinded by blackness.
I want to speak, but I have lost my voice.
Finally, my body collapses,
Like a bag of bones.
Two Polish people come to my rescue.
They carry me off in a stretcher. “Too much heat!” they say in Polish.
As they are carrying me off, a voice in my fevered brain spoke:
‘Wir haben überlebt.
Wir haben alles verloren,
Aber überlebt.
Ausgerechnet wir.’
(‘We survived.
We lost everything,
But we survived.
We, of all people.’)
© shywolf 2023
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Very poignant, Glenn.
The memories of those harrowing events can have traumatic effects.
Very true, Luigi, and yet we remember. Thank you for your comment.
Indeed, I agree with luigi. I feel privileged to never have suffered a war, yet they flourish all around us. Your work reminds us of the horror of one.
Mike
As do I (feel privileged to never have suffered a war), the horrors of which I hope to never experience first-hand, as they did during that terrible, terrible time. Your comment is much appreciated.
“We survived. We lost everything, But we survived. We, of all people” in German would be:
“Wir haben überlebt.
Wir haben alles verloren,
Aber überlebt.
Ausgerechnet wir.”
I don’t understand what you wrote.
Thanks for the correction, ’tis much appreciated.