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.
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
