Auschwitz
poem by Professor G. Stendig-Lindberg

Auschwitz poem by Prof. Gustawa Stendig-Lindberg

This Auschwitz poem is by my Mother, Professor G. Stendig-lindberg, who went through hellish conditions in WWII; from Krakow Ghetto to labor and concentration camp Plaszow, to Auschwitz, and then to Bergen Belsen.

During her imprisonment in the concentration camps, she wrote poetry, and my grandmother Felicia taught her Mathematics and English to make her focus on productive things and keep an agile mind.

The poetry became a way for my Mother to endure the horrible conditions, and to share the emotional suffering, into words of expression.

Stendig-Lindberg-Infeld-Kahane: The Family Story

AUSCHWITZ

Ash-red the burning sky

the cannons of chimneys

spit out souls

 

Here come you who want to warm

your hands in the hell of fire

partake in crime made legal

beyond all record

of man’s violence

 

Here come you, abjectly cowed

able to turn a deaf ear

to the cry – the children’s cry

in this low building

where murder is industry

 

A civilized people

outdo the Genghis Khan

outrank the hordes of Huns

thus seal their doom

 

Put a white sheet of silence

over the low building

hang a veil over the burning sky

hush the cry of terror

 

Cut out this unbelievable

from the heart of memory

too much for human eye or ear

too much for human soul to bear

 

Earth never knew such crime

Free us from a witness’s burden

Such sorrow is God’s to bewail

 

I saw Him cry.

Sweden, 1956

© Prof. Gustawa Stendig-Lindberg


Along with the Auschwitz poem here is another poem,  Life, by her daughter, Miriam.

Auschwitz poem includes another poem, Life by Miriam Lindberg
Life – a poem by Miriam Lindbergh, daughter of Prof. Gustawa Stendig-Lindberg

And one more poem by Prof. Gustawa Stendig-Lindberg

REQUIEM TO MY MOTHER*

DEDICATION: TO MY MENTOR AND MAINSTAY

I seek you in the shadowed valley of pain

the sockets of my sorrow hollowed eyes

telescoped through the thicket

of the dark, where tears guard silence;

spiky stalactites of salt solidified,

in prismic facets of the void

which took you to its own

dissolved the contour and the form

I knew by love.

 

Maybe you found peace there

and I disturb you and alarm,

selfish with the longing of a child

call you, see you as you were, stately,

 

young, copper-haired, your hands so white –

that in relief, the blue of veins

like trees on silk – warm, smooth,

remembered on my cheek.

 

No hand, as yours, could soothe in terror’s hour.

 

Pining for its touch on my burning head

I clutch the pillar of your wisdom.

And it stays.

* Felicia Stendig, dead, Bergen-Belsen, May 2nd, 1945

© Prof. Gustawa Stendig-Lindberg


 

Co -Vision Holocaust Remembrance Day Event – April 20, 2020

 

Presenters and Links

Eva Ariela Lindberg and Lea Saslav, Co-Hosts

Engineering: Jonathan Font Moxo

Video poster is the official Co-Visioning logo which is an original artwork by Eva Ariela Lindberg

Opening remarks: Eva Ariela, Lindberg Peace Foundation ~ www.lindbergpeacefoundation.org

Prof. Stendig-Lindberg’s Holocaust Poems

www.profmagnesium.org

Music by Yale Strom, Klezmer Violin

www.yalestrom.com

David Lenga, Holocaust Survivor shares ~ Stories from Lodz Ghetto and from his memoir book. “The Compassion of a Deadly Enemy: Even in the Darkest Hours, a Ray of Hope”

Music by Yale Strom & Elizabeth Schwartz

Klezmer Violin and Contralto Website: www.voiceofklezmer.com

Philip Raucher – Los Angeles Polish origin, featured at the LA Museum of the Holocaust

Music by Jonathan Font Moxo –Hlicha Lekesariya(Eli Eli)

Bruce Bierman ~ Dance with the Holocaust, Berkeley

Stand up to dictators! ~ poem read by Gilberto Melendez

Myra Goodman, author, “’Quest for Eternal Sunshine’—A Holocaust Survivors Journey for Darkness to Light,” co-authored posthumously with her father, Mendek Rubin. questforeternalsunshine.com

The story of Ilana Kahat, shared by Eva Ariela

Donna Kanter – “The Presence of their Absence” Trailer

thepresenceoftheirabsence.com

Second Generation Sharing (Q&A)

Fred Zaidman, the principal in Donna Kanter’s documentary Trailer

Yvette Nachmia – Poetry

Music by Jonathan Font Moxo – Prayer of Transformation

Music by Eric Alderfer, (Psalm 126) New York

Tes Kempner – Six Million Candles: New World Anthem

Piano Accompaniment and Arrangement by ShaRone Shmuel David Kushnir

Closing Circle and Prayer ~ Eva Lindberg