Martin Amis - SZMUL: Sonder (34-35) lyrics

Ihr seit achzen johr, we whisper, und ihr hott a fach. Once upon a time there was a king, and the king commissioned his favourite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn't show you your reflection. It showed you your soul—it showed you who you really were. The wizard couldn't look at it without turning away. The king couldn't look at it. The courtiers couldn't look at it. A chestful of treasure was offered to any citizen in this peaceful land who could look at it for sixty seconds without turning away, and no one could. I find that the KZ is that mirror. The KZ is that mirror, but with one difference. You can't turn away. We are the Sonderkommando, the SK, the Special Squad, and we are the saddest men in the Lager. We are in fact the saddest men in the history of the world. And of all these very sad men I am the saddest. Which is demonstrably, even measurably true. I am by some distance the earliest number, the lowest number—the oldest number. As well as being the saddest men who ever lived, we are also the most disgusting. And yet our situation is paradoxical. It is difficult to see how we can be as disgusting as we unquestionably are when we do no harm. The case could be made that on balance we do a little good. Still, we are infinitely disgusting, and also infinitely sad.