The tank stopped abruptly
And
we sat open mouthed
At
what we beheld
Our
brains could not assimilate
What
our eyes were seeing
Great
mounds of …. What?
It
can’t be that.
All
the horrors of war
We
had witnessed, experienced
Since
D-day
Did
not prepare us
For
what Belsen held in store
A
place devoid of God
A
place where even birdsong was banished
We
dismounted and approached on foot
As
each step brought us closer
Our
worst fears were realized
We
saw that the mounds were indeed bodies
Or
something likened to bodies
Then
I saw an androgynous figure
Stood
at the fence
A
dirty little bag of bones
Wrapped
in dirty rags
Bony
fingers clutching the wire
Like
a bird’s feet gripping a twig
I
reasoned it was a girl
As
the rags might well have been a dress
“We
are English” I said
“Don’t
be afraid”
Her
fleshless face was beyond gaunt,
Her
shaved head little more than a skull
Her
huge eyes were so black and deep
I
could see into her soul
A
weak smile played round her mouth
And
tears welled up in her huge eyes
I
would not have believed it possible
For
her desiccated form
To
have held enough moisture for tears
But
they were there
And
they ran down the grubby cheeks
Of
the little bag of bones
And
dripped onto her ragged dress
We
ran to the gates
And
forced them open
Then
we stepped into the jaws of hell
More
skeletal figure appeared
From
amidst the piles of rotting corpses
Bemused
and disbelieving
They
hugged us, and thanked us
Some
cried, some laughed
We
gave them water
And
fed them our rations
Not
realizing we were finishing
What
the Germans had started
The
food was too rich
For
their weak emaciated bodies
What
we didn’t realize
Was
we were killing them with kindness
The
girls name was Elise
She
was the same age as me
But
she died the next day
Her
face with the huge tear-filled eyes
Haunted
my dreams
All
of the days of my life
Penetrating
my soul
And
breaking my heart
My
only consolation
Was
that she at least knew kindness
Once
more before she died
