Why did 'BERLINERS' and the 'WORLD' look away???

achtung achtung SCHIWE SIZN es verbotten!

Throughout March
When yellow stars of crocus
Come and go
Throughout the ‘gleichshaltung’
When Herr Goebbels distorted
Stalingrad into victory
Throughout the beginnings of 1943
When allied bombs
Began to crumple buildings

German women –
Most “pure” Aryans –
Marched to ‘polizei’ headquarters
On the Rosenstrasse
Demanding release of their spouses
Jewish men – consigned to die
By goose-stepping troopers ready to bring storm

From Berlin’s railway station
The trains continued to roll
Whistles signaling a horrible premonition
Or was it a recurring ‘nachtmare’
Images of snarling dogs
Herding frightened prisoners
Silently consigned to Riga, Osciem, Thereisenstadt,
Across flowering fields
Where yellow stars of crocus
Come and shortly go

Never realizing the dreaded Gestapo
Efficiently snapped pictures
And made meticulous notes about
These purebred German women
Carrying banners defying the invincible Reich
Insisting on freedom for their husbands

And the people of Berlin
Hid their eyes and closed their minds
While these women screamed and shouted
For illusory justice
Hoping to end
Ongoing ‘konzentrationslager’ madness
Hoping to end atrocity
At least for their own ‘ehemanns’

And on a bright day
When yellow stars of crocus briefly bloom
Jail cells opened as train whistles wailed
Or was it
A child’s screaming in terror
Which summons recurring dread
As the recently released cry
Thankful for another day
Whispering

Praying that those packed on trains
Should be as lucky
As they were now – ‘zugts afen mir’

Leaving for homes momentarily saved
By love of those Aryan wives
Only a few
Observing the ritual ‘schiwe sizn’ –
Sitting on low stools mourning
Coming death
Knowing
They and their wives
Would soon be permanently taken away
From life
As fleeting as the yellow stars of crocus.


{this is a true story of German women’s
bravery on the Rosenstrasse during WWII}