I heard a woman say,
“The Holocaust makes you think
of two things:
concentration camps
and the number six million.
And nothing in between.
But the Holocaust
was everything in between.”
She was a survivor.
She survived the terror,
the horror,
the everything in between
that was in fact
so gruesome,
we simply cannot imagine it.
The unbearable darkness
that humankind can unleash
on its very own.
~
Now 70 years after that brutal war ended,
headlines brag
of an 89-year-old Nazi guard,
charged with 158 counts
of complicit murder–
one for every trainload of prisoners
that came under his care.
Appearing in court with a cane,
he’s held with dementia, but no bail,
and waits to suffer the consequences
of his teenage actions.
Of things he did or did not do.
Of people he killed,
or did not stop others from killing.
Of acts he committed out of terror,
and horror,
and survival.
~
We all applaud as he’s taken away in shackles
and a green jumpsuit.
Because if this man is guilty,
then maybe we are less so.
But little do we know
that sacrificing one guard
for six million souls
will do no more to even the score
than removing a teardrop of saltwater
will help to dry up the sea.
Perhaps if we focus our anger,
and sadness,
and remorse,
and regret,
on understanding
the beliefs,
and culture,
and values
of others,
perhaps then,
we are freed
from the prisons of our histories.
~
And we can all become survivors.
writeamuck 