Dachau Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

The guard just laughed,
you Jews are full of lice,
but worry not, we'll use
the stuff that kills them fast.
A thousand have gone before you,
come out clean and smelling nice,
impressing family and friends alike.
Thus re-assured they dropped their things
outside the metal doors and stripped
down to the naked skin, the shy were young
they huddled in the shade of rabbi beards,
until the signal came, the chimney spoke
belching brown smoke into the frozen sky.
It was a signal and the giant doors swung wide,
in silence of Teutonic precision gear,
well oiled the hinges were and so the clever plan
commenced to giggles of embarrassment and words,
they would be clean, the children sang, and danced
forgetting in their rush of joy the nakedness,
some boys did stare, of course, they'd never seen
breasts in the flesh and photos weren't the same.
It was a happy lot that crowded in the hall,
though heavy shadows of concern sprung from the walls,
was all this really true a mother asked, some cried
it was part fear and lack of certainty, they would be,
so the teacher, who was fat and well regarded, said.
And then the steam began to fall from overhead,
the soothing waters though, they never ever came.