Smoke
Obergrashof, Bavaria, December 25, 1938
German Words: Martin Luther
English Words: Holly Tannen

For Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 23, 2025

SMOKE
(Holly Tannen)

We trekked through the snow to hear the Mass on Christmas Eve.
Praying, singing, giving thanks, we’re glad that we believe.
Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, from Heaven down to Earth
, we celebrate His birth.

Candles and an angel on a fresh-cut Christmas tree,
Gingerbread lebkuchen Anke made for Kurt and me.
All night long we lay awake beneath her mother’s quilt
Hearing trains arrive and leave from that new camp they’ve built.

Our old mare has foundered, so I’ll have to put her down.
Anke and young Kurt will walk the two miles into town.
I clean stalls and sharpen tools, and Kurt is learning how
To feed the chickens and the pigs and milk the brown Swiss cow.

Anke used to take her bread to town on market day.
Kurt would help her setting up and meet his friends to play.
She’d sit in the square and gossip with the womenfolk,
Now she sits inside and watches for the yellow smoke.

“Can’t you smell it?“ Anke wonders, as we wash our hands.
“Still, I’m glad they found a use for all those barren lands.”
She stacks up the kindling while I light the oil lamp,
Thinking on the acrid smoke that rises from the camp.

Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her: Christmas song by Martin Luther, 1539.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beV5buiAo-8