The courage of the losers
He has big eyes… Ismael
a parched mouth Ikrahm,
a ringing voice Aziz.
They are far from the train of the wind
the English Kindertransport
when the war afflicted Europe
They are the kids on the way
The innocent eyes of today,
the lambs sacrified to the cross
by land and by sea
those we see parading at the tv news
we the servants of Charon,
we "the civilians"
we hostages of indifference,
victims and possibly accomplices
of a similar addiction..
We are on the edge of the path
crowded with outstretched hands,
we... we are motionless
with our hidden little arms
that do not essay to offer any help.
He has big eyes… Ismael
a parched mouth Ikrahm,
a ringing voice Aziz.
Din of bombs
in their memories,
at the foot sores
chilblains and hands.
The baton of the guards
spares no one,
It is worse than the swing of the tides,
It seems the hunger of sharks.
Poverty, famine, epidemics.
Ismael, Ikrahm, Aziz;
To go, to stay, to come back
The civilized Europe has invented
a deadly device:
the refugee camp
to make us accustom
to the diaspora of the Lambs
to the obtuseness of our minds
to the unmathed courage of the losers.
a parched mouth Ikrahm,
a ringing voice Aziz.
They are far from the train of the wind
the English Kindertransport
when the war afflicted Europe
They are the kids on the way
The innocent eyes of today,
the lambs sacrified to the cross
by land and by sea
those we see parading at the tv news
we the servants of Charon,
we "the civilians"
we hostages of indifference,
victims and possibly accomplices
of a similar addiction..
We are on the edge of the path
crowded with outstretched hands,
we... we are motionless
with our hidden little arms
that do not essay to offer any help.
He has big eyes… Ismael
a parched mouth Ikrahm,
a ringing voice Aziz.
Din of bombs
in their memories,
at the foot sores
chilblains and hands.
The baton of the guards
spares no one,
It is worse than the swing of the tides,
It seems the hunger of sharks.
Poverty, famine, epidemics.
Ismael, Ikrahm, Aziz;
To go, to stay, to come back
The civilized Europe has invented
a deadly device:
the refugee camp
to make us accustom
to the diaspora of the Lambs
to the obtuseness of our minds
to the unmathed courage of the losers.
Ikrahm, Aziz, and Ismael are the names of kid refugees. I thought about them, after my pupil John told me about his travel from Nigeria to Italy.
The Last Judgment [detail]-- Michaelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
The Last Judgment [detail]-- Michaelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
And look! coming toward us in a boat,
ReplyDeleteAn old man, his hair hoary with age, rose
Yelling, "Woe to you, you wicked souls!
"Have no hope of ever seeing heaven!
I come to take you to the other shore,
To endless darkness, to fire, and to ice.
"And you over there, the living soul,
Get away from those who are already dead!"
But when he saw that I had not moved off,
He said, "By other routes, by other harbors,
Not here -- you shall cross over to this shore.
A lighter skiff will have to transport you!"
And my guide: "Charon, do not rack yourself!
This deed has so been willed where One can do
Whatever He wills — and ask no more questions."
With these words he silenced the wooly cheeks
Of the old ferryman of the livid marshes
Who had two rings of flame around his eyes.
Those souls, however, who were weak and naked
Began to lose color and grind their teeth
When they heard the ferryman's cruel words
They called down curses on God and their parents,
The human race, the place, the time, the seed
Of their conception and of their birth.
At that they massed all the closer together,
Weeping loudly on the malicious strand
Which waits for those who have no fear of God.
The demon Charon, with burning-ember eyes,
Gave a signal and gathered all on board,
Smacking lagging stragglers with his oar.
As in the autumn the leaves peel away,
One following another, until the bough
Sees all its treasures spread upon the ground,
In the same manner that evil seed of Adam
Drifted from that shoreline one by one
To a signal — like a falcon to its call.
So they departed over the dark water,
And even before they landed on that side
Already over here a new crowd mustered.
--Dante, "Inferno," Canto III (tr. James Finn Cotter)
Kindertransport (German for “Children Transport”) was a 9-month rescue effort authorized by the British government and conducted by individuals in various countries and by assorted religious and secular groups. It saved almost 10,000 children under age 17 (most of them Jewish) from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk) by relocating them to the UK, where they were placed in foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. (160 without foster families were housed at Whittingehame near Lothian, the family estate of Arthur Balfour, the prime minister who had established Palestine as the Jewish homeland at the end of World War I.) Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust. On 15 November 1938, 5 days after the German government sponsored the "Kristallnacht", the "Night of Broken Glass", in which thugs and SS troops went on a rampage in Jewish neighborhoods in Germany and Austria, a delegation of British, Jewish, and Quaker leaders appealed to prime minister Neville Chamberlain to allow temporary admission of unaccompanied Jewish children, without their parents. They promised to find homes for all the children, to fund the operation, and to ensure that none of the refugees would become a financial burden on the public. Te Movement for the Care of Children from Germany, later known as the Refugee Children's Movement, sent representatives to Germany and Austria to establish the systems for choosing, organizing, and transporting the children. Most of them were taken by train to the Netherlands and then by boat to the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe first party of 196 arrived on 2 December, mostly from the Jewish orphanage in Berlin which had been burned down by the Nazis on 9 November. Other Kindertransports to countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden were also arranged. From 15 March 1939, with the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, transports from Prague were hastily organized. In February and August 1939, trains from Poland were arranged. Transports out of Nazi-occupied Europe continued until the declaration of war on 1 September 1939. On 10 May 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands. On 14 May, the day before the country surrendered, the last ship to leave freely, took 74 children to the UK. Among those rescued were future Nobel laureates Leslie Brent, Arno Penzias and Walter Kohn. The majority of the children remained in the UK after the war, though several went to the US or Israel.
Thanks Duane for hospitality and your comments I love Dante Alighieri, in English translation too
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