Sachsenhausen - Ian Lilburne

How proud
So punctual
At the Hackescher Markt
Ten minutes early
How efficient (at last)
So early in the day

Our affable guide
A natural wit with ironic eyes
And dramatic gesticulations
Had a friendly Australian accent
Undercutting her German English

It took us more than
An hour to get there
Changing trains at the Hauptbahnhof
For the Oranienburg express
All of us sunny and civilized
Strangers sharing stories

At the final station
We had our first lesson
The hidden stock yard where the
Prisoners were bought
Then made to walk to the camp
We had the luxury of a bus
Into which we were crowded
Like sardines
But not so anyone was crushed

The camp entrance
Ringed by a broken wall
Grey slabs emblazoned staccato
SAC HSE NHA USE N ME
MOR IAL A ND M USE UM

We entered the courtyard
And circled the metal map
The immensity of toy-size huts
Laid out logically

Then the tour began
Our day trip through hell

From Tower A to Station Z
From induction to death
The common way out
From the false hope of
‘Arbeit Macht Frei’
Through dehumanization
And cruelty in
Its myriad imaginings

The glint in our guide’s eyes
Took on other ironies
As anger and compassion
Tears and humiliation
Fought for ascendancy
Her humour now only
To ridicule the inhumanity
That planned this abomination

We all had cameras
And all used them
But some more diligently
Snapping the bathhouse
And every solitary cell
Every barred room and
Straw-filled mattress
Every inmate’s photo and national flag
Hanging on the wall
Or the basement of the
Pathology centre
Where they stacked the bodies
Of the infirmary patients
Awaiting autopsy
The only ones afforded this luxury
Not that the others needed it
It was clear enough how they’d died
A bullet in the back of the head
Machine gunned in the Neutral Zone
Fried on the electric fence
Drowned in the bathhouse
By a bored guard
Who wanted a laugh
To brighten his morning
Or simply hung
Or beaten to a pulp

There were no photos of these
And none to be taken
Though I’m sure someone would
If they’d had the chance

So logically laid out
The huts in perfect rows
Radiating a giant triangle
From the single tower
A panopticon
With a machine gun
An experiment, she said,
To test the efficiency
Of imprisoning so many
Its construction
Ordered within a week
Of Hitler’s ascendancy
An integral part of his master plan
To rule the world
So logical

By the time we boarded the train back
I hated logic
Efficiency
Punctuality
What monstrosities they unleash
What monsters they sanction
Being sloppy is best
Human