The man cannot even bring himself to say the word JEW.

In a platitudinous statement to commemorate  the Holocaust on this very date of 1/27/2017 – also the date of the liberation of Auschwitz – Jews or anti-semitism are not mentioned. I guess the popular vote loser is not just a germaphobe….

Words: camp inmates developed their own. A language expressing the despair and yet the strength to create a living, breathing universe, as long as one could still take a breath.

Here are some that I learned about at the Buchenwald memorial.  Photos are from Buchenwald, Bergen Belsen, Ravensbrueck and wherever else I traveled.

Schwarze Amsel – Blackbird – someone confined to solitary punishment

Tonnenadler – Garbage can eagle – those searching for food in the garbage cans

Zaunkönig – wren (literally the words mean king of the fence – those who committed suicide by clinging to the electric fence.

Totenvogel – skull bird – those having to announce the daily death statistics

Singende Pferde – singing horses – the Jews forced to drag the carts out of the mines

Wolga Schlepper – Volga Boatmen – inmates who had to drag the carts

Singender Wald – singing forest – referring to torture on inmates tied to the trees of Buchenwald.

Erdkunde – geography – punishment roll call

Rosen Garten – rose garden – barbed wire cage holding Jews or political prioners

Alm – alpine meadow – the isolation ward for inmates with tuberculosis and site of killing after medical experiments

UFA Palast – UFA Palace – camp kitchen

Maybe we should all write letter to son-in-law Kushner’s Rabbi to suggest he should offer some serious spiritual advice to be passed on to the pr*sident.