Monday, June 13, 2011

Kristallnacht, 9-10 November 1938

By Juliette M. van de Mheen (stardustraven)


From behind the curtains
Silent spectators

Saw
Heard

The victims' piercing screams
Their persecutors' raucous roars

Sledgehammers smashing
Stones and glass

Broken windows
Burning buildings

Desecrated - Destroyed
Homes, shops, synagogues....

Those frightened witnesses
Sat immobile

Crying, wrestling
With their conscience

Inside their houses
While outside

The hellhounds
The hordes of hooligans

Obeyed and followed
The Monster Anti-Semitism

Hatred and hysteria
At fever pitch

The Beast rolled on
Its orgy of destruction

Most brutal
These November pogroms

The turning point
Foreshadowing....


Juliette M. van de Mheen lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has worked at the University Library of Amsterdam, where she worked partially for the Rare and Early Printings Project), and she now works at the Municipal Archive. Recently, a poem was published under the name "stardustraven" at Naturewriting.com. Readers can find her blog here.

1 comment:

  1. This searingly haunting poem is a classic commemoration of the greates evil of the 20th century.I cerainly hope to read more from this poet whose voice is unqique with both eloquence and passion.

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