an extract from Wilfred Kemsley’s Anthology exploring the impact of the Holocaust and its major themes
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Walk, Gas, Fire, Ash
These steps, with regret, were repeated until death
The screams and cries ignored till out they died
No flinching from the officer off home after work he’d head
Fellow prisoners carrying businesses for the germans just doing what he said
How could they forgive, how could they forget
Pick a side, pick a job that would lead to our death
Work for nothing but never stop least you lose what little worth you have
Walk, Gas, Fire, Ash
Every day the same, every day another train rumbles down the track
Which way, which way, as left means life but right…
Right means into a place to be cleaned and warmed so they though
What’s wrong with hope? What’s wrong with prayer? Where they here to live?
Where they here for anything? We were people to right?
Right – that’s where you’re sent, where im sent, where we’re all sent, were sent.
Into the hole into the darkness my dignity and my possessions
What do they value more? My life or my shoes?
Into the darkness into the mass of so many, so many of us
Walk, Gas, Fire, Ash
