For Mairéad
Through all
the muck and stink and insult
three things survived -
dignity, solidarity
and this book,
pored over by every woman on the Protest,
passed round and round again,
from cell to cell
like some secret early Book of Martyrs
till it fell apart
into a heap of odorous leaves.
In a time and place
that knew so many good uses for paper,
the text stayed unabridged.
Chronicled by one Bruno Apitz,
anti-fascist, German and Jew,
was the story
of Buchenwald,
of the Jewish child,
hidden from the scouring killers
by the secret Camp Committee,
of insurrection
and the day they nailed their jailers.
The name of the book -
NAKED AMONG WOLVES,
emblem of so many things that survived.
[ Shorter poems contents page ]
©Renate Mitchell. May not be reproduced in any form online or offline without explicit written permission.