Erasure
Auschwitz of appalling atrocities
Barracks crammed with hundreds instead of ten
Concentration camps catastrophic no end
Devoid of rest, starved and shamed
Exterminated with brutality extreme
Flagellated for mistakes trivial
Gas chambers bore witness to shrieks blood-curdling
Holocaust, a worst mass genocide to date
Incinerators burned day and night
Jews, Roma, Sinti wiped out in droves
Killings in gas vans mercilessly because,
Łódź ghetto was getting overcrowded
Macabre massacre of the blameless by
Nazis so sinister, cruel, twisted
Orchestrated by a deranged demon
Poisonous gas was Zyklon-B lethal.
Queued for roll-call, whiplashed if out of line!
Ravaged by identity of race, religion
Swastika crest; Schutzstaffel formidable---
Tortured, scarred, fractured, shattered them
Unforgivable! Unforgettable?--- Never!
Viciousness was abound, ruthless gore
Waltz of death 'twas lunatic, manic
Xenophobic crusaders full of frenzy
Yellow stars marked Jews for humiliation
Zephyr now pauses on this shrine solemn
Glossary:
Łódź ghetto:In early February 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in the northeastern section of Łódź. About 160,000 Jews were forced into a small area.
Schutzstaffel: In 1925, Hitler also established the Schutzstaffel, otherwise known as the SS. The SS were initially created as Hitler’s personal bodyguards.
Members of the SS were chosen based on their ‘racial purity’, blind obedience and fanatical loyalty to Hitler.
The SS saw themselves as the ultimate defenders of the ‘Aryan’ race and Nazi ideology. They terrorized and aimed to destroy any person or group that threatened this.
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