The Loss of the Family | Teen Ink

The Loss of the Family

April 3, 2015
By DrummerHoff GOLD, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
DrummerHoff GOLD, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
10 articles 18 photos 1 comment

Ten miles ten miles,

Ten miles more,
All in this cattle car
Rode the family of four:
‘Arbeit macht frei!
Sie haben nichts zu befürchten’ he said:
Into the stomach of Hell
Rode the family of four.


‘Arbeit macht frei!’
Was there a Jew dismay'd ?
Not tho’ the family knew
Some one had order’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die
Into the stomach of Hell
Rode the family of four.

 

Barbed wire to right of them,
Barbed wire to left of them,
Barbed wire in front of them
Gleaming and deadly;
Storm'd at with word and cudgel,
Proudly they rode and well,
Through the gate of Death,
Into the stomach of Hell
Rode the family of four.


Flash'd all their bodies bare,
Flash'd as they claw'd at air
Suffocating the Jewish there,
Begging and pleading while

 

All the west wonder'd:

Plunged in the acidic-smoke

As Hitler also croaked;
Jewish & Gypsy
Reel'd from the acid-smoke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they fell back, but not
Not the family of four.

 

Barbed wire to right of them,
Barbed wire to left of them,
Barbed wire in front of them
Gleaming and deadly;
Storm'd at with word and cudgel,
While Jew & Gypsy fell,
They that had work’d so well
Came thro' the gate of Death,
Back from the stomach of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of the four.


When can their misery fade?
O the wild fight they made!
All the west wonder'd.
Honour the fight they made!
Honour the revenge unpaid,
Family of four!


The author's comments:

Based off “The Charge of the light Brigade” by Lord Alfred Tennyson. 


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