On the train to Auschwitz

The acrid, fetid air
Pungent and robust with death
Stench postures itself to attack
Cannot be ignored
"the banality of evil"

Storing people like pieces
Whisps of memory
Hurt more than any torture
A body could endure
On the train to Auschwitz
Nothing remembered
Would be better
On the train to Auschwitz
It would be better to forget her

Those of us that survive
Could not have imagined
The map of our lives

On the train to Auschwitz
No man
Proclaimed to be wise
On the train to Auschwitz
We were forced to give our lives

Marching to a music
Nothing like our own
Taking away our everything
That reminded us of home

Alone on the train to Auschwitz
Every man for himself
Survival became
A complicated wealth

Alone on the train to Auschwitz
I knew I must survive
Alone on the train to Auschwitz
I found life