It’s very difficult for an outsider
                                               to grasp how very little value
                                               was placed on human life in the camp.
                                                                            — Viktor E.  Frankl
                                                                            “Man’s Search for Meaning” 

You were on a list
you had a seat in the truck
to a rest camp in the morning
or perhaps to the gas chambers
No one knew
Such was the game they played
The chief doctor
who liked you
gave you a chance
to get off the list
(and the truck)
but you decided to let fate have its way
So you walked to your hut 
where your friend Otto
bled tears for your farewell
and made him remember your last will 
a simple will as wills go
You wanted your wife to know
you thought of her evey day and hour 
that you loved her more than anything
that your marriage outweighed all else
And you went away the next day
And it really was a rest camp
And you never saw Otto again
And the will he committed to memory
was never delivered
Auschwitz murdered millions
but you found meaning 
behind its barb wire
and wrote your book
You didn’t dedicate it to Otto
but you wondered in print
on page 76  
if he had found his wife again
For the sake of man and meaning
I hope so