Camp Concerts

In school I learnt That music beautifies life. It elevates and ennobles The soul. But tell me My dear teacher: How could the music Elevate the prisoners Of Treblinka? How could The waltz or the tango Beautify the tortures In Sobibor? And how could The symphonies At Auschwitz ennoble The victims? The Nazis organized The concerts In the death camps In order To humiliate The prisoners And to mock The lofty essence Of human life. Orchestras In the lagers Played to degrade The lifeblood of dignity To debase the marrow Of the soul. Inside The barbed wire fences Trumpets sobbed Flutes and violins wept As majestic melodies Soared over Grisly horrors.