SUBJECT>Re: The Last Silesian POSTER>geoff EMAIL>geoffleone@hotmail.com DATE>1110313598 IP_ADDRESS>uhall-room28-232t.fdu.edu PASSWORD>aa3znsx.4y15U PREVIOUS>84372 NEXT> 84470 IMAGE> LINKNAME> LINKURL>

RE. The Last Silesian

For Leo Yankevitch.

Pulling strings so that a few words seem to come out of the mouth of an embodiment of the History of the Second World War (Silesian Dept.) is a Child's Eye View of Things to me. Cartoonish.

Is any of it true? How much is twisted, spun? What is left out? Well that is an easy one, nearly everything.

Best,

Geoff

*

: Above us: cawing rooks and grey clouds.
: Around us: leafless trees and falling snow.
: It's late in January, 60 years
: since Gleiwitz-Petersdorf was
: "liberated."

: Anne, a frail and tiny woman of eighty,
: and the last Silesian on our street,
: points her left hand toward the frozen ground
: and rests her right upon a walking stick.

: —"When Stalin's army came, the NKVD
: tortured, raped and murdered our people.
: Both of my parents were among the dead
: buried here inside a mass grave."—

: In her sad voice there are hints of dialect.
: —"Later on, Poles from the East exhumed
: them,
: planted trees, and built this lovely
: park."—
: The dialect of the dead, and the vanquished.