Artwork For Poem, The Holocaust

Artwork For Poem, The Holocaust

Painting, "The Holocaust" By robert Anderson, (C) Robert Anderson 2009

The Holocaust..

During the 1930s and 1940s, German Nazi leaders established 22 concentration camps where Jews, along with Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, Communists, Slavs, and others judged undesirable, were imprisoned. Many prisoners were worked to death, shot, gassed, or given lethal injections. By the end of the war, more than six million people had died in concentration camps. All the major extermination camps were set up in Germany and Poland. And were used with one ambition in mind . To come up with ," The Final Solution".

This is not just a Jewish poem, but one for all that died in those dark days of our history.

"If you tell a big enough lie when you are feared, then the world has no option but to believe you" Adolph Hitler


"The Holocaust “, A Poem Of Genocide

Barb wire reflects
, through the eyes that survived
The squalor and hunger
, where others thrived
No dementia can erase
, the tears and cries
From my memory of Auschwitz
, before my demise
And the pity for those
, who’ll tell you it’s lies

Smoke stacked chimney’s
, with clouds of death
The loved ones I swallowed
, with every breath
Leaving a smell on my clothes
, that will never digress
As I was too scared to help them
, I must confess
To stay alive , and tell through my eyes
, as best
Before I concede to lay my head down
, and rest

Smiling guards with snarling dogs
, over pits of lime
Those terrified faces with gentles colour
, as they stood in line
No diary of hope or umbilical cord
, as all is severed from the minds sublime
Before falling in layers
, to the laughter of guards taking their time
And then I shovel
, the next layer of lime
Whilst butted and kicked
, come the next batch of swine
They never ran out of lime

Void of all sense of reason
, whilst lost to any season
The furnaces seemed to burn forever
And the crackling of bones
, would never waver
Nor did the line of the children and mothers
, awaiting the showers
Shaving and stripped of clothing and cold
The deception of the warmth of the shower
, about to unfold
And across the yard were children at play
, on swings and bars awaiting their day
To fill the air with children’s clouds
In mothers arms they swirl in darkness
, and sting my eyes with tears
, a shade of grey

We would enter the showers after the screams
, had faded to all , but my dreams
The old and infirm all lying around
And the children so cold
, as they blanket the old
, who cradled the children , so cold
A bravery in death , that has to be told

In pyramid form the others stacked high
The weak at the bottom
, as the stronger would try
To climb to the top
, and breath clean air
Only to find
, there was no air there
This last ray of hope
, reflects from their stare

And the children I carried
, now peaceful in rest
Away from these horrors at best
But so limp and frail with looks of confusion
Their thoughts and dreams
, were just an illusion
And the fairy tails were all but true
, within a life , that they once new
As fairies and teddies never threw
, you into a burning furnace
With all this hatred harnessed
I place you gently on the tray
, I think of words I dare not say
Goodbye my children as I must stay
And tell a world of the horrors
,of this day
As I closed my eyes
, and wheel them away
Into the darkened cloud
, they fade

All these photographs are in my head
They swirl with the clouds
,of the so many dead
In negative form ,
, and needing exposure
Again I must say
, there can never be closure
There must never be composure
, for time elapsed
And pray to god where answer’s lye
We never again see a darkened sky
We never see our loved ones cry
, or have to watch , our children die

Robert Anderson 27/02/07