Towards a Culture of Remembering the
Past:
GRUESOME GURS NEVERMORE(Satis
Shroff)
The Blue Bridge stretches over the
railroad tracks,
A bronze greyish-blue overcoat hangs
near the bridge.
The sleek, white intercity Express
glides below,
On its way to Basle (Switzerland).
Shortly thereafter a TGV-train from
Freiburg to Paris.
The overcoat reminds us of the trains
in October 1940,
That took Freiburg's Jewish population,
400 of them,
To Gurs, a concentration-camp in
southern France.
And from there to Auschwitz,
To be murdered.
That was state-organised racism.
The deported Jews had lived in Baden,
Saarland and the Pfalz.
6,504 deported Jews.
Most were forced like cattle in wagons
In the summer of 1942,
Deported to concentration camps in
Eastern Europe.
A few could escape,
Many died in the inhuman camps,
Which had barbed-wire, Alsatian dogs
and armed guards.
The winter was hard.
Some children were saved by
help-organisations.
These survivors are the time-witnesses,
Who have lived to tell
Of the cruelty of deportation,
Life in the Lager Gurs,
1027 kilometres away from Freiburg,
And their rescue from the clutches of
the Gestapo
In the end.
Ah, in this very town there are people,
Who want to keep this shameful deed in
mind.
The Zeitzeugin Renate Haberer-Krauss
came in 2010,
To tell us how it was in those days.
The Basic Law now holds for all,
Irrespective of nationality, faith or
colour.
We have realised that without respect
and tolerance,
There can be no peaceful togetherness.
Tolerance should not lead to
indifference.
Let us march in demonstrative silence,
To the blue Wiwili Bridge,
Where the bronze overcoat is.
Denke, Du, was uns geschah.
Think, yes you, of what happened to us.
* * *
HOPE HEALS (Satis Shroff)
Unto you that fear my name
Shall the sun of
righteousness
Arise with healing in his
wings
(Malachi)
Bridges of peace, friendship and
togetherness
Are built on mutual respect,
Tolerance and Miteinander.
We must talk about the symbols
Of tyranny in your villages, towns and
cities.
On Memorial Day we gather with earnest
faces,
To honour and remember the people
Whose names are engraved on stones,
Who died in the two World Wars.
The suns and husbands have fallen,
But a new ghost raises its ugly head
again,
The Neonazis who work for
The Bundesnachrichtendienst.,
Who receive money for their
incompetence,
In Thuringen, Saxony,
Hessen and Lower Saxony.
The lesson of faschism taught us
Never to combine
The police with the secret service,
For it would be akin to the Gestapo,
The Geheimen Staatspolizei.
The sixteen secret services in Germany
Cannot coordinate and cooperate.
Since thirteen years have we given
Neonazis a free hand,
Who robbed banks,
Executed Turkish and Greek migrants.
The constitution makes it possible:
‘Germany for the
Germany,
All aliens out!’
Long live the Freedom of Speech.
But prithee, where is the protection
Of the migrants and underdogs
Of the society?
Is a new holocaust in the offing?
Yet there is no way
But the path of peace and togetherness.
The ewig gestrigen and the neos
Are still licking the wounds of war,
Wounds that won’t heal,
For they are infected with hate anew,
With brown-propaganda.
War has always been ugly and brutal.
The widows of the on-going krieg in the
Hindukush,
The survivors who don’t understand
their own world,
After the trauma of Vietnam, Irak,
Afghanistan.
When the NATO sirens are tested,
The air vibrates with a monstrous
noise.
Fear makes the olde soldier’s heart
beats faster,
His pulse races and he almost chokes.
The memories and the fury of war
overwhelm him.
Who will restore the faces we’ve
adored?
Love, faith, togetherness and peace
Haven’t been lulled to sleep.
We still hear the clarion call
To the dangers of war,
To the hoarse shouts
Of the Neos in the street,
Who strut and fret,
And believe Auschwitz was a lie.
A silence treads like clouds shadows,
Among the people of Germany.
Hope hasn’t abandoned us yet,
Despite the petite victories of the
rightists,
In Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The people in these lands
Think
otherwise.
In every good person there is a bad
part,
In every bad person there’s a good
trait,
Like ying and yang.
We can only appeal to humans,
Hope and pray for peace,
And the old wounds to heal,
Between humans in this world.
