The Loss of the Family

When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred! —Lord Alfred Tennyson“The Charge of the light Brigade”

Ten miles ten miles,

Ten miles more,

All in this cattle car

Rode the family of four:

‘Arbeit macht frei!

Sie haben nichts zu befürchten’ he said:

Into the stomach of Hell

Rode the family of four.

‘Arbeit macht frei!’

Was there a Jew dismay'd ?

Not tho’ the family knew

Some one had order’d:

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do & die

Into the stomach of Hell

Rode the family of four.

Barbed wire to right of them,

Barbed wire to left of them,

Barbed wire in front of them

Gleaming and deadly;

Storm'd at with word and cudgel,

Proudly they rode and well,

Through the gate of Death,

Into the stomach of Hell

Rode the family of four.

Flash'd all their bodies bare,

Flash'd as they claw'd at air

Suffocating the Jewish there,

Begging and pleading while

All the west wonder'd:

Plunged in the acidic-smoke

As Hitler also croaked;

Jewish & Gypsy

Reel'd from the acid-smoke,

Shatter'd & sunder'd.

Then they fell back, but not

Not the family of four.

Barbed wire to right of them,

Barbed wire to left of them,

Barbed wire in front of them

Gleaming and deadly;

Storm'd at with word and cudgel,

While Jew & Gypsy fell,

They that had work’d so well

Came thro' the gate of Death,

Back from the stomach of Hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of the four.

When can their misery fade?

O the wild fight they made!

All the west wonder'd.

Honour the fight they made!

Honour the revenge unpaid,

Family of four!