"...och ordet var Folkmord."

Med anledning av

Minnesdagen över Förintelsen
27 januari 2008
Dikten Shoah skrevs till minnesdagen 2005

av den engelske poeten Don Barnard

***

In the beginning was the Word

and the word was Jew.

And the word said Other, the word said Them.

Not Me, not You.

**

Then the ploughing of the minds and the sowing of the lies

and the lies said Rapists and the lies said Thieves

and the lies said Evil in disguise.

And the Word was Demonise.

**

Then the growing of the Weeds.

And the Weeds were Greed.

And the Weeds were Spite and the Weeds were Schadenfreude

and folk passed by on the other side.

And the Word was Bleed.

**

Then the writing of the Laws.

And the Laws said Jews

are not as other men.

No loving of your neighbour.

No Jews as citizens.

And the Word was Cleanse.

**

Then the packing into trucks and the tracks led east.

People carried like beasts and harried like beasts

and herded like beasts into pens.

And the Word was Untermensch.

**

Then the Words became a sentence

and it sent them to their death

by burdening the strong, who earned another breath

before they died, and murdering the rest, who simply died.

And the Word was Genocide.

***