Memories of holocaust

Dark gate of Europe
Empty aparments
Death orphans of Israel
Ideology of cruelty



Blood on the dirty hands
Mission of eugenika
Medical experiments
On tortured flesh of victims


September trees
Are in burning wet fields
Arrival of infections
Nocturno genocide



Exodus in Eastern-Europe-
Emotional violence
Cremations--smokes--ashes--
Gas chambers of remembered --omen

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

This is sadly dark but uplifting in that it begs questions of today and our motivations. Coming from Scotland many of us still live with the scars that Edward I of England inflicted and the theft of our sovereignty by the English at the forced Act of The Union. Hence I am supporting Scottish Independance. On top of all that is the trouble in Northern Ireland (Scotlands brothers) stirred up by The English. And despite the cooling of the Troubles of the 60s, 70s and 80s scratch the surface and Catholic and Protestant are ready to take up arms against one another again. Many who want to exit Europe [Brexit] fear a federal state dominated by Germany. How complex we are but how fickle.

[Wayfaring stranger]

I was use to live at Scotland when was referendum about get separet from England. I think that time was great chance to ged ride off past. Also i am not expert on Scotish history but after defeat on Culloden field there was not too much war resistance. Once when i visited Scotish higlands it was quiet sad picture too see how this place is desolated and ruins of some burned houses what left there.

I still cannot get it why it will be again troubles at Northern Ireland. Cause i think those fights are definetly past. Irish during the British occupation never give up resistance. I think this also help them to don't get stuck at own past.

I think Brexit was very clever propaganda . So many people start follow ideas of Brexit. I think one o the problem is economic problem. Working class don't have raising wages according to infliation . There is lot of bitterness . So emigrants workers became enemies etc.

What i find funny all those who prepared and make Brexit to happen. They completly vanished from public life. Like they want to deal with it what they have done.

[Eilis]

I've read a few books on the cultural connections between Social Darwinism, Freud, Nietzsche (to name a few) and the horrors that accompanied Hitler's rise to power. So many things I never knew-- or rather things I wish I had been taught in school. I think children need to be taught more about connections so they don't grow into adults who believe things occur in isolation. Context is so important. I feel it in this poem.

The poem did bring to mind the circumstances of the Holocaust-- but it also zoomed out for me to encompass things that aren't as readily discussed and understood. It reminded me of those things I had read and how people were able to find justification for vile acts in philosophies and scientific findings by removing the human factor. There is always a human factor-- we just need to find a way to connect the human factor to theory in a way that allows us to see the humanity in all human beings and not be selective in who we choose to degrade or protect. The blind hand keeps reaching and reaching.

As we know, the atrocities and suffering didn't end on V-E Day but continued for decades and the effects are still being felt. In my own part of the US, in some ways, we are still mulling over the circumstances and outcome of the Civil War. There are people who still look to that period in history as unfinished and seek to return and refight those battles, in a sense. I have come to understand that the past is never really the past but something that continues to live in us and manifest in myriad ways. We are creatures of history-- feeding on the wounds of the past.

It is troubling how easily we slide into destructive and violent ways of thinking and behaving. Your poem acts as an urgent signpost and reminder, for me. A reminder of where we have been and where we could easily end up once more if we are not paying attention. Excellent work.

[Wayfaring stranger]

I think problem with authors is everyone just take what can fit into they own idelogy . I think Nietzsche at his thoughts was quiet self involve and he just reflect dark side like at good-----evil. People only help if they can gain something. This trivilization human psyche on some mathematical model behaviour don't work in reality. There is so many people who do help cause they feel somebody realy need help.


Theme of holocaust raised from reflection of last attack on Jewish comunnity in USA and Europe. It's look to me like history is back and we don't even notice. Idea of eugenika is still alive but not in radiclistic form. We still follow the structure of strongest one must win and weak ones must die. I think here in Usa all conflicts have still resonance of genocide of native tribes. Spirit of i can take everything cause i am more civilazed. Is still here . Like here is still searching for enemy to send young people into another war. And here we are like we nothing really learned. Hate each other too pride to see another point of wiev.

[Eilis]

You’re right. That’s why I feel context is so important. When authors build on the ideas of others (or even on sacred works, like the Bible for example) but only use the info selectively, justification for many things can be found. Marilynne Robinson talks a lot about this in her essay work, and I keep reading and rereading that stuff to keep myself going the right direction.

When I was a teenager, I witnessed the proliferation of neo-Nazism and the KKK around me and on television, etc, but I guess (naively) I thought it was something hanging on but dying. Seeing the way things have shifted in the last few years, I feel foolish for not recognizing the truth. But, here we are and I hope we can move past our baser instincts with time and realize that none of us are most deserving. Certainly not more civilized- as you point out- and yes, I see those signs and meanings stemming from the idea everywhere. It’s challenging. But, your poem sheds some much needed light, in my opinion.

[Wayfaring stranger]

Some people can just completly mess up original ideas. We can see this at daily news . I think also Noam Chomsky wrote about this few a books.

I was spent my childhood at comunnistic regime. So there was not any fascistic groups. Like child for relazation i was live at dictator regime was quiet horrified. But this i realize when comunnism was over. I know one great grandfaher get 5 years in Czech gulag cause he said joke about Stalin.


Nationalistic fascism came after revolution . It was quiet wild times. There was lot of fight on streets in between left and right radicals. I guess nothing much change like now at Europe is 1936 before they blame jusy Jews and now they blame emigrants and refugees . I was hear at news this week was at europe big meeting of 11 nationalistic groups which can be start of new danger.

[Eilis]

It's interesting what you say about not realizing you lived in a dictatorship until it was over. I can only imagine what it would be like to live within a system like that. We were taught to fear the communist system/ideals when I was growing up, but even with all of the stories we were told, it was still something distant and hard to grasp. Like a Grimm story.

I suppose we are learning, continually, how people are affected by the legacy of wars and regimes. And also, maybe, forgetting those legacies as the distance grows. Where we are now is a bit terrifying because of the resources of destruction that are available to governments and also because of the way hate can be so easily spread through the internet. It's a dark time, for sure.

[Wayfaring stranger]

Comunnistic propaganda was very strong. Basicaly you have that propaganda since you was born. If you are born into something you cannot excatly see all bad sides of world where you living in. Besides even at home people was scare to talk about what's really happening .



People are more easy to fall to hate then love. It's kind of primal instict of survival. Like they are still living in primitive age of stone and fire. There is always changing seasons of light and dark hopefuly in near perspective light will prevail.