The Little Red House
By andrewoldham
- 1482 reads
The Little Red House*
"Through a peep-hole in the door one could see that the people standing nearest the outlets dropped dead immediately
- Rudolph Höss, architect and SS Commandant of Auschwitz Birkenau.
The children cry in the garden, spring has come and
the fall of blossom has opened their eyes, laughter
amongst the rolling washing and the early crops.
Bruises and cuts are silenced with a kind word, touch
of hand upon the forehead, brush back the hair and
kiss; whisper in to small ears Co zrobiłeś? Co zrobiłeś?
What did you do? Here, the world remained behind the door
and seasons crept, dreaming of fruit laden trees, the scythe,
the sickle, the soil and sod, the child beneath the skin.
Pada śnieg, the clouds are heavy again, there is snow
Upon your shoulders, in your hair, Kocham CiÄ™.
Children's cries, silenced by a kind word; soft touches
of perfumed hands, women's voices beneath the trees.
Autumn is in their cheeks, winter in their eyes, summer and
spring is cast from their hands. Telling jokes once heard
at the dinner tables of their Fathers, silly words between the
soup and the spoon. There is forgotten laughter here, as they
pass two by two, hand in hand, voice within voice, beneath
and under the lintel, moss green in the grain, ashen in the sun
under the falling blossom of the orchard.
It's snowing, the clouds are heavy again, there is snow
Upon your shoulders, in your hair, I love you.
*The first gas chamber at the Auschwitz II camp, also known as Birkenau, was put into operation on March 20, 1942 in a thatched-roof cottage which had formerly belonged to a Polish peasant named Wiechuja. This cottage, located just outside the western boundary of the camp and hidden behind a grove of birch trees, was known as "the little red house" and was also called Bunker I. It was torn down in 1943 after the new gas chambers in Crematorium II and III became operational.
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