" Apple Blossoms and Roses at Auschwitz "
Two Polish prisoners' paintings help
inform the exhibit at Auschwitz-Birkenau:
"Roses in a Vase" ("Róze w wazonie"),
painted on glass by Bronislaw Czech,
and "Apple Blossom" ("Kwiat jabloni")
by Jan Baras-Komski.
In the beginning: the red cottage
and the white cottage
and the apple orchard,
a snowstorm of blossom;
frenzied honey bees attack
the white and rose blossom set
to become good eating apples.
Róze w wazonie, Kwiat jabloni
People line up waiting
to enter the white or the red cottage
with bricked-in windows, converted
to shower blocks, mainly the old
and the young, Slovakian Jews,
the unemployables.
Róze w wazonie, Kwiat jabloni
A boy plays with a white marionette horse,
it has a red saddle and a red bridle,
and its hooves shine in the sun,
he gallops it along the ground,
clip clop, clip clop.
His grandfather, Moshe,
retired Kosher butcher of Bratislava,
keeps the boy close
under the S.S. guard's gaze,
clip clop, clip clop, clip clop,
as they wait to walk into the showers.
© 2005 Christopher T. George
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