The Birches At Birkenau Poem by Martin Swords

‘Birkenau’ – the Birch Wood.
Gathered among the beautiful birches
outside Auschwitz – Birkenau
the Chosen People waited, hoping in vain.
Deliberately deceived, mothers, daughters,
Fathers, sons, frail, infirm, families, waited.
Only delayed because the chambers
and the ovens were full, no Exodus.
Still waiting, waiting for us.

Lost treasures, among the roots
a button, a gold ring, a child’s buckle, survive.
Carved in birchbark a plea – ‘remember’,
cries out for the lost tribe
this grove once mocked.
The birches and the memory still grow, pointedly,
heavenward, screaming at God.
Golgotha – place of skulls.
Birkenau – place of birches.
Even the trees were corrupted.