Mr. Sawoniuk

You were only obeying orders only trying to please your masters - you weren’t the sharpest chisel in the box but you executed your duties with enthusiasm and diligence. The law’s the law and rules are rules and who were you to disagree? If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Now, on this last night, Exploding fireworks Light up the sky Over the edge of the heath and the bars on the window cast faint shadows on the floor, and down the corridor the night-shift officer is in his office with a coffee and cigarette to keep himself awake. Let the film rewind. You’re a man in uniform. British Rail, London Bridge. Tickets please. Thankyou, madam. Thankyou sir. Executing duties. Enthusiasm. Diligence. And all the while a nagging memory at the back of your mind That never goes away But that was such a long time ago And you look so different now - heavier, jowlier – unrecognisable And you’ve come such a long way since then. Tickets please. Thankyou madam. Thankyou sir. Let the film rewind further. A different uniform, Domaczewo, September ‘42 and a clearing in a wood at the edge of town. The feast of Yom Kippur. The law’s the law And rules are rules, If a job’s worth doing, It’s worth doing well No birds are singing, and the ditch has been dug, And they’re standing there, fifteen of them, naked and shivering. They look you in the eye. You turn your face away. They curse you. Your past lies buried with them in the grave. You were only obeying orders, Only trying to please your masters, And now, on this last night, Exploding fireworks light up the sky And the film is rewound. Anthony Sawoniuk, formerly Andrei Andreeovich Sawoniuk (Belarusian: Андрэй Саванюк; 7 March 1921 – 6 November 2005) was a Belarusian Nazi collaborator from the town of Domaczewo in interwar Poland. After taking part in the murder of the Jewish community in his home town, Sawoniuk served in the SS until November 1944 when he defected to the Polish II Corps in the British Eighth Army. After the war, he settled in Britain, became a British subject, and became the first and only person to be convicted under the UK's War Crimes Act 1991. He died in prison in Norwich, England.