Birkenau (January 26, 1945) by John Valentine

Early evening shadows, the guards already gone. Streaks in

the setting sun through ashen wires of light. Silence of the

smoke. Down lines of flesh, eyes that seemed to ask and never

answer. A Kaddish drifting through the rows, murmured, not

forgotten. Something risen, like embers. Something shadowed,

the ragged armature once called men, skeletal, voices barely

there, rasping like hungry ghosts. Something twilit, nameless,

whispering in the wind. Spreading snow, relentless, freezing

round the fallen. The moon’s indifferent eye. Coldness grabbing

everywhere, wrapping round the rags. Far away stars, exhaustion.

The final prayers, hopeful. Nothing then, nothing but the stillness.



*Birkenau was liberated by Russian troops, January 27, 1945.



John Valentine lives and works in Savannah, GA.