Forgotten Voices of the
Holocaust
Nothing
can shut out that memory
Even
the early morning mist
leaving
Cathy’s to go to work
Or
twist those words around
Whether
in April
Or
September cloaked
Grey
in a dizzying light.
Nothing
across running across
Platform
4 of Victoria
Picking
up my mobile phone
Which
I had reported as stolen
Just
before Easter
But
turns out by magic
Much
to my surprise.
Nothing
going past Waterstones
then
onto to King Street
On
the way to get the bus to work
With
the memory of last night’s
Report
in the Evening News
Of
9 in 30 shops closed
Fresh
in my thoughts.
Nothing
including Ian Duncan Smith’s
empty
boast on some workman’s radio
Of
how he could live on £53 a week
When
I know my mate is on less
And
on the point of eviction
After
deductions leave him unable to pay
His
rent top up.
Nothing
but nothing
Of
the way you would have
struggled
down the street
near
where you lived
just
before Germany
With
your pants half ripped down
past
your legs.
Nothing
but nothing
Of
the blood dripping
Down
from your mouth
Or
your black tie
Which
had been used to choke you
Only
shortly before
But
now doubling up as chains.
Nothing
but nothing
Of
the way you kept a blanket
Wrapped
round your face
When
they eventually got
Bored
of you like a pet
Leaving
you look like the Elephant Man
Until
your wife got home,
Shielding
your children
From
the vicious assilt
You
had just suffered
And
the way they had hit you
And
shaved your hair
And
dragged you round town
Saying
‘I am a Jew,
I
will not complain
To
the Nazis again’
Something
we can all learn from.
(This incident I read
about recently in a book called ‘Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust’ where in
one case in the book talks Munich lawyer Dr. Michael Siegel who had sought police help in March
1933 is instead forced by Nazis to walk through the streets barefooted and with
a shaved head - carrying a sign saying "I will not complain to the police
anymore."
More details can be seen
here
The reference to King Street Manchester Evening News
which said 9 out of 30 shops on this main shopping street in the centre of Manchester
The reference to Ian
Duncan Smith, the current Work and pensions secretary for the government came from a quote said by
him over the past few days when he claimed he could live on £53 a week (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/01/iain-duncan-smith-live-benefits)
Thanks to Cathy for
lending the book here over Easter Weekend which has harrowing reading but
something I guess we all must learn from and never, ever forget.
Napwino this day asked
us to write a poem containing all lies. After reading this book and reading the
article in the Guardian about Ian Duncan Smith on the way to work who has made
out of the most stupid statements I have read in recent English polictial history
under the current government considering the way people are struggling at the
moment in the United Kingdom on benefits, sadly there was no chance of that
although I have touched on it with the reference to it)
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