32. Christoph Heubner; Poet and Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee.

Christoph Heubner is a poet and writer of short stories. In addition he has had a long-term collaboration with the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace based in Berlin, he is Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee and Member of the International Auschwitz Council. He has been associated with the International Youth Centre from the beginning, and is one of the founders of this institution in Oświęcim. (https://mdsm.pl/en/)

He wrote this poem for us to mark International Holocaust remembrance Day.

Remember
                            

the trees and the wind, remember

remember, the wind and the trees

no, they did not surrender................

please do remember these..............

the smoke and the ashes, remember

remember, the ashes, the green.......

no, they did not surrender................

remember them, it has been......

 

Auschwitz is a powerful representation of the extremes of cruel and harsh imprisonment and the ideologies underlying it. But it is not alone, there were examples before and since. In this conversation Christoph talks about the effect of imprisonment on people in its most concrete form, like Auschwitz and through the actions of oppresive regimes which at times can be more difficult to discern. He talks about his early lifein an Oxford night shelter and on becoming a poet. He describes his many years of involvement with Auschwitz and with the Youth Centre, including, as allegory and metaphor, many beautiful and poiingnant tales of survivors.

In his conversation he mentions several notable people and artefacts

Vasil Bykau was an outstanding writer who wrote about experiences in the Second World War and fought politically against the 'imprisonment of the mind' that the KGB imposed and continues to impose in Belarus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasil_Byka%C5%AD

The poem that Christoph mentions at the end is by Robert Frost, 'and so many miles before I sleep....'

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening