The Old Would Fade Away

(The Wild, Wild, East)

Ordinary people, 
watching and waiting, 
those who did nothing, 
unwilling or unable to listen to the tug of conscience, 
and the ones who forget, 
having seen enough, 
to say, 

"there is nothing I can do..." 

my actions won't matter, 
and all the books that have been burned, 
are just ashes and smoke, 
that have faded away forever, 
scattered by the wind and into the nostrils of ambivalent generations, 
who have failed to remember, 
to wrapped up in today, 
to even notice the slow walk to never again being now. 

"Besides in those days, in this region, everyone heard that Jewish persons and children were being shot, which also caused me to do what I did." 

This was the wild, wild East, 
everyone knew what we brought, 
there was no pretending, 
we believed what we were told, 
no one would bat an eye, 
this was our place now, 
this was our destiny, 
the now was taking over, 
the old world, 
the old ways, 
would just have to fade away. 

“I am unable to grasp at this time how in those days that I was in such a state as to conduct myself so brutally and reprehensible – shooting Jewish children. However, earlier (before arriving in Ukraine) I had been so conditioned to…the racial laws, which established a view toward the Jewish people. As was told to me, I had to destroy the Jews. It was from this mindset that I came to committ sucha brutal act.”   Erna Petri