Voices - Viktor Fischl

Viktor Fischl

Czechoslovakia and Britain, like most of the world during the war, were linked by shockwave radio transmission. News of Lidice and the other atrocities being waged against the Czech people were known immediately. The world was shocked and deeply moved. Viktor Fischl, a Czech poet working for his government-in-exile in London, responded to the events by writing a poem that was translated by Laurie Lee, the British writer, and read on radio broadcasts.   

  
 
Lidice

It is no more; it is no more,
the tongueless bells no longer ring,
only the smoking walls remain
and one stray dog who walks alone
searching in vain from stone to stone.

They are no more, they are no more,
Jan, Karel, Vaclav, Antonin,
they are no more, they are no more,
Vit, Pavel, Michal, Frantisek,
they are no more, they are no more.

The men they herded for the slaughter,
the women they have driven off,
the feeding babe ripped from the breast,
they are no more.

 

 

Executed Bodies in Lidice