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  2006-05-30- Danube
 


 José Galicot

 

 

Danube

 

60 Years After The Holocaust…

 

Jewishsightseeing.com, May 30, 2006

Loneliness…

a huge vacuum…

while Europe prospers,

the people unite,

the borders crumbled,

the foot prints of those who left

those who will never return

(because they are dead)

remains there

 

A chain of empty Synagogues

for concerts…

for libraries…

for …

the removal of consciences,

for remembrance…

but… alone

 

Empty synagogues,

awaiting for parishioners

remembering echoes of the Shema Israel.

Synagogues for concerts,

for libraries

for … hiding shame,

for remembering,

empty Synagogues,

lonely.

 

Cemeteries that will no longer receive the dead

They killed them all!

They burned them all!

 

Jewish neighborhoods as memories,

with new life from other people,

awaiting for their old owners

that built them

that filled them

that will never return

 

Vienna is proud of Stephan Zweig

Novi Sad brags about Einstein

Budapest speaks about Freud and Herzl

Prague talks about Kafka and Rabí Yehudá Levy.

There is the Golem

in an attic

waiting for the magical word

that will awake him

Emet… truth

when six million people found

Met… death

 

The Austro-Hungarian Empire:

Joseph II

opened the ghettos,

made the men equal

in life.

The Nazi Empire:

Hitler,

closed the ghettos,

made the man equal

in death.

 

The Danube is there,

as always

for always,

since always,

flows calmly without stopping,

without being able to stop,

without wanting to stop,

irrigating lands with history,

 washing blood,

The Danube is there,

immutable before human weakness,

immutable in the war.

The Danube is there,

before the good men

before the bad men.

 

The Danube is always there,

is not blue,

is muddy, in a greenish brown color,

immutable,

unconscious,

while at its shores,

 in Vienna ,

in Prague ,

in Budapest ,

in Bucharest ,

in Sophia,

the people live and advance,

the wise European Union progress.

Where are the Jews

who were there,

before the Serbians,

before the Hungarians,

before the Turks,

before everybody…?

 

Ghosts that left holes in the cities

empty neighborhoods full of others.

Talents that left,

genius that died.

Places for tourists

contemplating the time

between tours in buses

with repetitive and boring guides' speeches

 

Danube , vein of Europe

state divisions,

that runs always,

as always,

for always,

since always

washing the blood

watching the history pass by

listening for echoes of the Jews

that left profound foot prints,

painful,

perennial,

as always…

since always…

for always…

 

                                           © José Galicot, Tijuana, Mexico

Editor's Note: José Galicot is a columnist and civic leader in Tijuana, Mexico, and an active member of the Jewish community across the U.S. border in San Diego.