Our Europe by Laurent Gaudé

Author:Laurent Gaudé
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 2019-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

They are leaving Spain.

Barcelona has fought, but will fall.

The men of the Durruti column,

The besieged Catalans,

POUM members, communists, anarchists, republicans,

All head for the Pyrenees.

The Retirada crosses the mountains

To end up in the sadness of the poverty of exile.

Camps on beaches fill with exhausted, filthy crowds.

They are safe and sound but they too discover their new name:

“Undesirable”

And must learn to bear it.

Europe begins to wander.

France welcomes three million foreigners in the 1930s.

“Welcome” is the wrong word.

France watches as three million foreigners arrive,

It doesn’t welcome them.

Listen to Daladier:

“We have to get rid of the Undesirables.”

Clearly stated, nothing flowery.

And so they’re rounded up in camps.

Dozens of camps,

Small and large.

These crowds have to be controlled,

Their numbers checked, their destinations known.

“Concentration camps” are set up.

That’s what they’re called,

In Rieucros, in the Lozère

Not far from Mende.

The camp at Rivesaltes and the one in Les Milles.

All over France

Barbed wire will grow, like wild grass.

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