On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (and the 20th of my original post on the matter), here’s the moving words of my old friend Phillip Whitfield….
Day of Liberation
(Bergen-Belsen, May 1945)
We build our own prison walls,
but that day the doors fell open.
It was holiday time
In the death camp.
Lift him with courtesy,
this silent survivor.
Battle-dress doctors,
We took him from the truck,
put him to bed.
The moving skeleton
had crippled hands,
his skinny palms held secrets.
When I undid the joints I found
five wheat grains huddled there.
In the faces of other people
I witness my distress.
I close my eyes:
ten thousand wasted people
piled in the flesh pits.
Death of one is the death of all.
It is not the dead I pity.
Philip Whitfield
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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