On Stumbling
Over stumbling stones?
No, no one stubs their toe against them.
They're embedded so evenly into the paving.
But the names they carry, the letters and numbers, Are stamped on our conscience;
Are stamped on our conscience;
"born, deported, murdered"
And the places
Łódź, Minsk, Riga, Theresienstadt,
Auschwitz, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka ..."
We look for you
Whose names are written in the archives
and the heavens.
We find you in places of terror and persecution.
We recognise you in your children and grandchildren.
The stones speak of you,
every day.
You are not forgotten.
Inge Grolle
(translation by Dr. Anne Stokes and Ingrid Haas)
;)