Sing a Song of Endlösung*

by Dennis Vannatta

March 28, 2011

“You left, you right.”

“Hear! O Israel.”

“We were being taken to the slaughter.”

“I tried to hide them in the attic.”

“Shoot straight in the head.”

“Has anyone escaped from here?”

“I will not speak.  I am dead.”

“Mother, mother, I’m scared.”

“In this, my last minute, I am with you.”

“If God wills it, we shall see you again.”

“Never forget you are a Jew.”

“Let me stay with my son.” 

“Before our eyes our children fell.”

“Truly we are cattle.”

“Take us and murder us as well.”

“One should like so much to live a little bit longer.”

“Those women . . . knew they were going to be gassed.”

“Mother, may we cry now, mother?”

“Nothing.  Nothing was left of my past.”

“The moans of the elderly, the screams of the children.”

“Even as I watched they died.”

“Where is God in heaven?”

“I saw . . . ten thousand die yesterday.”

“Jews, we are done for.”

“Huge flames rose up in the . . . sky.”

“Must I tell more?”

“It’s an indescribable inferno.”

“The smell, oh god, the smell.”

“You too will be turned into soap.”

“This is already hell.”

“. . . to sustain hope in the presence of evil.”

Russian officer:  “You are free.

Go where your hearts desire.”

“We shouted, ‘Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité.’”

 “Hear! O Israel.”

“We still say ‘yes’ to life.”

“Do not think our spirit is broken.”

“Our marching step will thunder, ‘We survive!’”