Dachau

Work will make you free, the sign above the gate,

  but on the inside, there was nothing but the hate.

Because it was the first, it remains forever cursed,

  though it was not the worst, it fed the Nazi thirst.

Silent, still and somber, the trees don’t even sway,

  is it any wonder that no one comes this way?

No sentinel mans the tower,

  Now no one has that power.

Ghostly apparitions, gaunt with hollow eyes,

  covered with the stench, the vermin and the flies.

Roma, Jew and cleric, or social deviant,

  anyone who spoke out, this was where they went.

Work, disease and hunger, a human toll they took,

  the SS would ensure we never got a look.

The barracks now sit empty, no living occupants,

  the ovens now the only, lasting monuments.

How could they be so cruel, the question begs an answer,

  was it only just, a Teutonic form of cancer?

They fell for a Leader who fueled their hate and fear,

  said he’d make them Great, but it cost them dear.

The Leader was the answer, to a question never asked,

  His rallies fanned the flames, as He in adoration basked. 

What caused them to hate, those who dared to differ?

  It troubles the soul, and it oughta’ make us quiver.

And if we found a mirror, I wonder what we’d see?

  Perhaps an oppressor who looks like you and me….

LDT Aug 6, ‘22

         We visited the Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich in 1983. It was a quite, somber day of reflection. I comforted myself by thinking it could never happen again.

Main Menu: http://www.azrockdodger.com