Just Another Day In Auschwitz

Hans opened the grating as usual
Dropped the Zyklon B pellets
One by one just as the sergeant said
And closed the aperture
He couldn't bear the tumult
He knew would follow
It was the screams of the little ones
He found the most unsettling
But at least they ended first.
However, one thing was for sure
It beat the Hell out of dying a hero's death
On the frozen Russian front.
And there was a silver lining too:
Christmas was coming and with it extra rations.
Twenty long minutes elapsed
Before the screaming down below
Gave way to blissful silence
While Hans read a chapter of Mein Kampf
Which took his mind off the constant fear
That Kommandant Hoess would find out
His grandma's name was Rachel Bergwitz.

About This Poem

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - polished draft

About the Author

Region, Country: London, Culture Capital of the World

Favorite Poets: Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Chaucer, Shakespeare to name but a few. And VERY IMPORTANTLY: Erich Fried, a leftwing Austrian of Jewish ancestry who fled the Nazis and became a British citizen in 1949., And, other writers (non-poets mainly): Raymond Chandler, Irvine Welsh, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Charles Bukowski, John le Carré, Anthony Horowitz, Mick Herron, Margaret Attwood, Edna O'Brian, Maeve Binchy., Writers who I find vastly over-rated: TS Eliot, Virgina Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Phil Larkin, E.A. Poe, A. Ginsburg, Longfellow, Gerald Manley Hopkins (actually I LOATHE Hopkins more than damson-dappled words can say).

Comments

Gracy

5 years 7 months ago

Oh, the horror...the horror..

Oh, the horror...the horror...You've brought the harsh truth to us in deftly worded verses.
The lines below are especially hard to read. And the irony...

"It was the screams of the little ones
He found the most unsettling
But at least they ended first."

Why is Hans in the camp? Because you write that they would find out his grannies' name.
I'll return for another read, this is a tough one to swallow at one go.

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 7 months ago

Thank you,...

...for your intelligent comments.
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Geezer

5 years 7 months ago

Huh?...

It wasn't me!

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 7 months ago

An incomprehensible Freudian slip!

....! Which I have now corrected.

Geezer

5 years 7 months ago

'Sallright...

I suppose that Freudian slip was actually... maybe... a compliment? ~ Geezer.
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Edna Sweetlove

5 years 7 months ago

Dear Geezer...

...we may disagree on some things but I could never fault you for your trying to comment on most pieces published here - you do a lot to keep to site alive. Bravo.

Geezer

5 years 7 months ago

Thanks...

I do try to do my part. I have been blessed with many friends here over the years and it's true that I/we haven't always agreed with all of them, yourself included. ~ Geezer.
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