The Last Consolation Vanished by Zalmen Gradowski

Author:Zalmen Gradowski [Gradowski, Zalmen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO000000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, BIO037000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Jewish, HIS043000 HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust, REL040030 RELIGION / Judaism / History
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2022-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

The First Night

Each of us goes to his bunk, and feels as if he is sitting on a shive bench [mourning stool] and mourns. We talk about the great tragic act that has just played out before our eyes.

Like mourners who have to be reminded that they have a body, which must also be given its due, so now each comrade reminds the other that perhaps he should eat something. One comes to the other’s bunk. Each looks for consolation from his comrade, his brother.

Comrades who slept next to those who are now gone walk to the bunk of the missing and with trembling hands take the remaining blankets and carry them around looking for a corner where they can rest their grieving bodies. They cannot bear to stay in their former place. Only yesterday, his brother slept there next to him, he can still feel the warmth of his body, and now his bed, his place, is cold and dead and the remaining brother cannot lie down again in the half-dead bed.

The hours creep by, in sorrow, lie like a heavy slab of monotony. Even those with a resolute, unbending character now feel weighed down by the tragic atmosphere. Gradually, they all disappear into their bunks and crawl under the covers. They want to free themselves, remove the pressing load of melancholy, seek consolation under the wings of sleep.

Now come the late-night hours. The block is quiet. The dead stillness is broken only by the heavy breathing and sighing of the unfortunate children who find no rest even in sleep. Further away, from the half of the block now empty, comes a sadness that fills the entire space. It seems as if two worlds are present. Over there, a numb dead world, bound up with a tragic life lived under sentence of death.

Over there, a small lamp burns with a mournful shine. It shines on the empty graves that weep and moan for their children, who now lie somewhere in fear and trembling, tortured by sleeplessness. They have no place to lay their heads and these, their tombs, remain here empty, sad and lonely. In the still of night is heard a painful question: Why, why did you capture my children and where, where is their path leading them?

The lamp burns there and shines its light on a dead world.

You look on from a distance and it seems the light is burning for the victims, for the 200.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.