Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends
wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts
wir trinken und trinken
wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng
Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland
dein goldenes Haar Margarete
er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne
er pfeift seine Rüden herbei er pfeift seine Juden hervor
läßt schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde
er befiehlt uns spielt auf nun zum Tanz(from Celan Todesfuge)
(Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundown
we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night
we drink it and drink it
we dig a grave in the breezes there one lies unconfined
A man lives in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when dusk falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
he writes it ans steps out of doors and the stars are flashing he whistles his pack out
he whistles his Jews out in earth has them dig for a grave
he commands us strike up for the dance) trans. by Michael Hamburger
It is nearly impossible to comprehend: the engineering talent, the deployment of resources, the logistics that came together to manufacture death on an unheard-of scale. But before all of that could happen, a bank committee met to review the project and saw good profit potential.
Dresdner Bank helped finance the construction of the Auschwitz death camp and was the bank of choice for Hitler’s feared SS paramilitary, according to an independent report on the German bank’s dealings during the Nazi era, released Friday in Berlin.
The findings in the 2,400-page report are not entirely new, but they serve as a blunt reminder that Dresdner Bank, one of Germany’s largest banks, was an early, enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis, benefiting from personal ties between its bankers and SS commanders.
"Without the help of the bank, the SS could not have constructed its large network of business interests," said Harald Wixforth, a historian at Ruhr University in Bochum who wrote one of the report’s four volumes. "Dresdner Bank participated in many ways in the crimes of the Nazi era."
Most notoriously, Dresdner financed, and owned a stake, in a construction company that built some of the crematoriums at the Auschwitz camp in Poland. Mr. Wixforth said Dresdner’s bankers were aware of the camp’s purpose, and encouraged the company to take on the contract.
About fourteen years ago Dresdner Bank published a Festschrift to mark its 120-year anniversary; Chancellor Helmut Kohl sent his congratulations. In that publication the bank presented itself as a "victim of National-Socialism", the years between 1933 and 1945 were covered with one sentence. We know now that the bank owes much of its postwar success to the wealth it had appropriated as the Hausbank of the SS. But how many victims of its criminal activities are still alive to benefit from any reparation payments? Sorry, but this study is coming out too late: late virtue is cheap virtue.
