Roll Call

As numbers stood at attention
18,000 women
in blue-grey striped dress
to be counted off in Ravensbrück.

They stood and stood for hours on end
before the SS began to count.
The commander cried down the camp:
"You must stand and hunger for days on end!"

The 18,000 pain was great.
36,000 eyes full of deepest horror
asked, appalled, "When will this abate?"
the 18,000 numbers stood a full 36 hours.

Bodies devastated,
feet with painful wounds,
couldn’t hold them up.
Death reaped a plentiful harvest here.

Legs and heart cramped in vain
from the inexpressable pain.
And many fell to the ground.
One didn’t count the dead.

But there came a second verdict
over the poor ones mercilessly.
and kicked with feet
in the faces of the dead.

Not a single human emotion stirred...
Who could find a way to believe
in a life beyond this...
when bestiality and death are not avenged?

O, damned human race!