Translation
I had taken a liking to this land,
I sent heralds aplenty, one by one.
In many shapes I came and went.
You, however, saw me in none.
I knocked at night, a pale refugee,
A Hebrew, hunted, with torn soles of shoe.
You called for the henchman, you waved to the scout,
And thought it was a pious thing to do.
I came as a trembling, feeble old woman,
The cries of anguish silenced by fright.
You, however, spoke of the future race,
And only my ashes you cast to the light.
An orphaned boy on Eastern plains,
I fell to my knees and begged for bread.
You, however, feared a future revenge,
And so you shrugged and gave me death.
I came, as a captive, a worker, aghast,
Deported and sold, ripped by the whip.
You averted your eyes from the ragged wretch.
Now I come as a judge. Do you see me at last?
Notes
There is not much that I want to add here; the poem speaks for itself. But I will say this: It was written in 1944 by the Catholic Baltic German author Werner Bergengruen (1892-1964) and published in 1945 as part of the collection Dies Irae (Latin for “Day of Wrath”). I have seen it stated that the poem was recited at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1962(1) – however, Yad Vashem has published lengthy recordings of the trial on Youtube (see the first part here) and when I tried to locate the recital, I couldn’t find it. That is not to say that it was not read out, only that I would have liked to have seen the reaction if it was. I will try to access the complete transcripts of the proceedings in the future.
Even if the poem was not recited at the trial, it’s easy to see why it might have been. Eugen Kogon (1903-1987) used it to open the last chapter in his seminal report about the inner workings of the concentration camps, a sober and yet harrowing immediate analysis for the Allied forces, entitled Der SS-Staat: Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager, first published in 1946 and translated into English in 1950 under the more emphatic title The Theory and Practice of Hell. Eugen Kogon had been a prisoner in the KZ Buchenwald, arrested for his opposition to the Nazi regime on grounds of his religious (Christian) and political beliefs. He would go on to become an important sociologist, political scientist and politician in post-war Germany. It should be noted that his famous book is based on his first-hand knowledge of how the system of genocide worked but necessarily focused on Buchenwald which was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz… the fact that the book is still almost unbearable to read during many of its matter-of-fact descriptions of unimaginable horrors speaks to the magnitude of the crimes against humanity (and in particular Jewish people) that were committed. In the last chapter of his report, Kogon turned to the question of a collective guilt of all Germans. While he rejected the notion of a guilt by association, he plainly stated that this did not absolve individuals of their individual guilt and he also made clear that many more people (= the vast majority of Germans) were personally involved with and therefore personally guilty for what had happened than they would have liked to make others believe after the war. This connects to something that Bergengruen stated as well in 1945:
No one must say that they did not know about the atrocities. No one should be given a pass on the basis of such an excuse. Everyone knew what was happening in the concentration camps, unless they forcefully covered their ears and faces […]. And how on earth would someone like to plausibly explain that they had no knowledge of the events in the concentration camps? Did the Nazis make a secret of them? They may not have wished that all too many details should come to light […]. But their busy propaganda indeed worked zealously towards ensuring that news from those zones would leak without respite. For how could the desired terrorising effect have been achieved if the terrorising measures had remained unknown? A blend of publicity and secrecy lies in the very nature of every terror system. The transparent, the half-transparent veil of the mystery is one of the most useful tools in exciting and influencing the horror-filled fantasy of humans. Thus everyone in Germany knew what was happening. Every could, everyone had to know.
Werner Bergengruen(2)
Bergengruen’s verdict is also reflected in the film Judgment at Nuremberg from 1961 and I will close this entry with reference to what Burt Lancaster’s character says because it will do well to remember that this shame, a German shame, should be of universal interest, to serve as a warning for what can happen when most people either participate in atrocities, regardless of conscience, or… simply look away.
(1) For an example of the claim, see Frank-Lothar Kroll, “Werner Bergengruens Tagebuchaufzeichnungen zum Dritten Reich,” in: Werner Bergengruen: Schriftstellerexistenz in der Diktatur. Aufzeichnungen und Reflexionen zu Politik, Geschichte und Kultur 1940 bis 1963, ed. by Frank-Lothar Kroll, Luise Hackelsberger and Sylvia Taschka, Munich: Oldenbourg, 2005, 7-20, here 13.
(2) Cited from the Achenkirch/Tirol notes (1945), number 813, as reproduced in: Werner Bergengruen: Schriftstellerexistenz in der Diktatur. Aufzeichnungen und Reflexionen zu Politik, Geschichte und Kultur 1940 bis 1963, ed. by Frank-Lothar Kroll, Luise Hackelsberger and Sylvia Taschka, Munich: Oldenbourg, 2005, 82f. Translated by myself.
Original quote: “Niemand darf sagen, er habe von den Greueln nichts gewusst. Diese Ausrede soll keinem hingehen. Was in den Konzentrationslagern geschah, das wußte jeder, wenn er nicht Gehör und Gesicht gewaltsam verschloß […]. Und wie will denn jemand glaubhaft machen können, er habe von den Geschehnissen in den Konzentrationslagern keine Kenntnis gehabt? Machten denn die Nationalsozialisten ein Geheimnis aus ihnen? Zwar wünschten sie nicht, daß allzuviele Einzelheiten bekannt würden […]. Aber ihre geschäftige Propaganda […] sorgte ja mit Eifer dafür, daß unausgesetzt Nachrichten aus diesen Zonen durchsickerten. […] Denn wie hätte die gewünschte terrorisierende Wirkung erzielt werden können, wenn die terroristischen Maßnahmen unbekannt geblieben wären? Eine Mischung von Publizität und Heimlichkeit liegt im Wesen jedes Terrorsystems. Der durchsichtige, der halbdurchsichtige Schleier des Mysteriums ist eins der brauchbarsten Werkzeuge zur Anregung und Beeinflussung der schreckerfüllten Phantasie der Menschen. So hat jeder in Deutschland gewußt, was geschah. Jeder konnte es, jeder musste es wissen.”
Image Credits
The header image is taken from a picture showing the entrance of the KZ Auschwitz (Bundesarchiv, B 285 Bild-04413 / Stanislaw Mucha / CC-BY-SA 3.0). (I am aware that this might seem a crass choice for a header image and I contemplated using an abstract painting but that would only obscure the true context in which the poem has to be viewed.)
The notes image is taken from a picture of “The five Supreme Court Judges serving at the appeal of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to the guilty verdict he received at his trial” (Government Press Office (Israel), 22 March 1962 / CC-BY-SA 3.0).
german poetry 
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