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Charlotte Delbo. Auschwitz and After 150,000 people were exterminated at Auschwitz; Delbo was there. ✫ You cannot understand you who never listened to the heartbeat of one about to die. (127). ✫ My heart dried up From love and pain From pain and love day in day out
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Charlotte Delbo Auschwitz and After 150,000 people were exterminated at Auschwitz; Delbo was there
✫ You cannot understand you who never listened to the heartbeat of one about to die. (127) ✫ My heart dried up From love and pain From pain and love day in day out it withered slain. (129) Auschwitz and After
Hell had vomited all its damned who were greeting us now Right away we realized why they failed to welcome us warmly They missed the torments of hell and saw us arriving we who came from the world As people who know and can tell the difference and right away we would also know and wish to forget life. (134) “Morning of Arrival”
✫ Actually there’s nothing to dying decently but in diarrhea mud blood a slow drawn-out dying (136) ✫ I came back from the dead And believed This gave me the right To speak to others But when I found myself face to face with them I had nothing to say Because I learned over there That you cannot speak to others. (228) Auschwitz and After
…I beg you do something learn a dance step something to justify your existence something that gives you the right to be dressed in your skin in your body hair learn to walk and to laugh because it would be too senseless after all for so many to have died while you live doing nothing with your life. (230) “Prayer to the Living to Forgive Them for Being Alive”
(1913-1985) Compare your problems with the ones she took on when she was a young woman. Somehow, Delbo managed to live a productive life after the haunt of Auschwitz.