Arbeit macht frei

Arbeit macht frei
The iron letters
smile
over the gate into hell

Journey’s end
Now you’ll be free
Liberation imminent
Arbeit macht frei

Arbeit macht frei
A non-descript gate
through which the
cattle wagons sway

All stop
All change
Freedom from all
Arbeit macht frei

Arbeit macht frei
Free from your family
we’ll beat them away
Never need them again

Free you of all
that you ever held dear
possessions, people, dignity
Arbeit macht frei

Arbeit macht frei
Turn left or turn right
More freedoms ahead
Freedom from dirt

Altogether now
Shed your belongings
you’ll get them back later
Jede Laus muss heraus

Jede Laus muss heraus
All lice out the house
Close the door to be fumigated
Arbeit macht frei

Arbeit macht frei
Drag them out
Cart them away
Soon to be smoke

Freedoms beyond bounds
The ultimate freedom achieved
Freed from your life
Arbeit macht frei

Arbeit machte frei
It’s now only words
The acts long since stopped
Justification there never was

We’re all to blame
We all allowed this to happen
Remember remember
the Ninth of November

Do not cast blame
lest ye be blamed yourself
Dark the letters stand in warning
Arbeit macht nicht frei

The Wall came down

The Wall came down
with the sound of breaking glass
the roar of fire
consuming reason

Jude
is not a first name
It's a German word
meaning * JEW *

The Wall came down
after 70 years
of dictatorship
and human failure

The Star of David
an emblem
of persecution
a harbinger of death

The Wall came down
After a mere three wars
Two hot
one cold

The Swastika
auspicious symbol
for mass murder
on an industrial scale

The Wall came down
on Reichskristallnacht
I cannot celebrate
only commemorate

9 November

Light fills the room
refracted by hundreds of
finely cut crystals
hanging from the chandelier

A fire demurely crackles
in the hearth
filling the room
with warmth and comfort

A waltz gently plays
and couples glide
in tender embrace
along the polished floor

Darkness rules outside
as does the November chill
wafting along city centre streets
with marked windows

Light flares up rudely
as a bonfire shoots tongues
of fire into the night sky
illuminating the scene

Light flares up further
refracted by thousands
of crystals scattered
along streets of darkness

Gaping mouths where windows were
Glass pulverised into countless crystals
Fire spreads
consuming the culture

Books are burned
their writers were deemed unfit
for the country whose Leader
sought to exterminate

The millions of fragments
of broken glass, of crystal
scatter the light of the fire
burning the synagogues

Soon the worshippers
will follow the fate of their temple
The light of the fire
overshadows the continent

Dying into dull embers
the dancers fade into shadows
as the light goes out over Europe
on Kristallnacht