In Memoriam: Auschwitz

There is much written, movingly, on the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Here in tribute I reproduce a poem by Primo Levi, the outstanding voice of the survivors.

Shema
Primo Levi

You who live secure

In your warm houses

Who return at evening to find

Hot food and friendly faces:



    Consider whether this is a man,

    Who labours in the mud

    Who knows no peace

    Who fights for a crust of bread

    Who dies at a yes or a no.

    Consider whether this is a woman,

    Without hair or name

    With no more strength to remember

    Eyes empty and womb cold

    As a frog in winter.



Consider that this has been:

I commend these words to you.

Engrave them on your hearts

When you are in your house, when you walk on your way,

When you go to bed, when you rise.

Repeat them to your children.

Or may your house crumble,

Disease render you powerless,

Your offspring avert their faces from you.