Tag Archives: World War II

Last Christmas ( 1961 )

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Sepia hued

smoke-filled aroma

of spicy gingerbread,

pervasive odours

of holly,ivy

and mulled wines;

infusing kitchen,scullery

and dining room,

evoking a childhood

with their forgotten

boxed presents

under the enormous

seasonal bough,

its array of

waxen lights

twinkling,twinkling

long into memory

and myth;

the greetings

and the joy

in Alpine setting

of hearth

and ” Heimat ”

Advent,Christkindl

and ” Stillenacht “;

their longing

recalled by chance,

by stray snatch

of melody,

returning,returning

to an innocence lost,

to a card once

annotated

“frohe weihnachten,A.E.”

now,here,

now in a place

where that birth happened

but no longer counts,

A.E.

Prisoner,

Adolf Eichmann.

(*Footnote:Notorious Nazi War criminal Adolf Eichmann was abducted by Israeli Mossad agents from Argentina and was put on trial on December 15 1961 in Israel)

Dietrich B.

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It wasn’t any power you wielded
that made them afraid ,

it wasn’t your persuasive argument
which they couldn’t counter ,

it wasn’t the numbers following you
that caused them sleepless nights ,

it was the thought
which lingered in their minds
that they were doing wrong
and were bound to fail ;

and of all the people they could think of ,
who they didn’t want around afterwards
giving a witness statement ,
it was you.

Footnotes:-

Who stands firm? Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God’s question and call.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer ( 1906 – 1945 )

Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer stands out among the Christian leaders during the Nazi era, for he was one of the few to actively resist the racist actions of the Nazi regime. In addition to his legacy of courageous opposition to Nazism, Bonhoeffer’s theological writings are still widely read in Christian communities throughout the world.

Little Boy’s Diary: August 6

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I always knew ,
always always knew
that I had it in me ;
and perhaps would be given
the chance to show off
in front of the world;
What I could do
with what I had
hidden inside of me
like some dark dark secret
in a fairy – tale that
someone else would tell,
to their chidren and their children
knowing it did not have a happy ending;
Like on the day we set off ,
getting there at 8.15 on Monday morning ;
6 feet tall ,
2 feet 4 inches in diameter ,
projectile shell ,9 rings ,
each with a 6 and a quarter inch diameter ,
141 pounds of fissionable material ;
bright shining as the Sun ,
” Little Boy “.

Flashpoint

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A new chrysanthemum dawn beckons,
its flamingo-hued fingers
drawing back the veil of night;
today is little Aiko’s birthday
an auspicious day with
harmony and tranquility prevailing;
Aiko will show her
draughtsman accurate hieroglyphs
to the school’s Headmaster and
he will smile,applauding her endeavour;
Aiko accompanies her grandfather holding
his hand on their stroll to school,
looking up,far up in the heavens,
she says that she can see a silver
kite drifting slowly slowly across
across the azure canopy,her grandfather
squints and knows it cannot be a kite,
though from that “kite” a tiny
silver sliver appears to begin to
somersault endlessly earthward;
transfixed Aiko pulls impatiently at
his sleeve,and in that moment
he understands that all the rumours
were true and that this moment
would forever be separated from
all the other moments and all
the other times and all the
places would be separated from this
time and this place by this
silver kite that brings with it
an inauspicious augury;
Aiko will not be celebrating
her birthday to-day,
the day when time itself
has come to an end,
on this sixth day
of August
1945.