Auschwitz – by Charles N Whittaker

The poem has a rhythm which evokes the trains used to forcibly transport people to death camps during the Holocaust. Double BAFTA winning actor Olivia Colman has lent her support to Holocaust Memorial Day 2014 by recording Auschwitz. You can listen to the recording below.

Download a copy of Auschwitz by Charles N Whittaker.

The semiquaver chugging of the train on the track
And the people on board who will never go back
And the terror in the eyes of all the young ones to go
With no one knowing as the train comes to slow

Those men at the station as the ramps drop down
Where humanity lost is the only crippled sound
Hope gone for those who stand behind the hard sharp wire
And the smoke in the towers rises just a little higher

And the blue ink stabs a little harder in the skin
Above the veins of despair where murder let it in
And the terror in the eyes of all those about to leave
Another train on the track no last minute reprieve

And the slow, crot…chet chugging of the train on the track;
And the people on board. Who will ne…ver go.

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