Gas Chamber

Naked we stood in the 'shower room',
Men, women, children tightly packed,
Waiting for the shower or doom,
Neither windows nor light,
All shivering with fright,
In the darkness of night.
Suddenly an acrid,
Bitter almond smell,
Are they killing us
In this veritable hell?
Gradually increasing
The chocking, the screaming,
Is this nightmare real
Or am I dreaming,
The old rabbi shouts:
Shemah Israel,
Then his voice descends
Into a desperate wail,
Then slowly subsides the crying
And turns into chocking and dying,
A naked woman holds on to me,
And I, in turn, could not let her be,
An embrace which would last
Till death's shadow is cast,
And my last thought was:
God, why oh why
Are we, The Chosen, to die...

The capos cleaned up the following day,
Found a couple embraced in an intimate way,
Said one to the other:
It was their last hurrah in death's final play...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz