Holocaust Remembrance

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.  The atrocities committed not so long ago shall forever remain among the ugliest of stains upon humanity.

Unable to put into words the emotion and importance that is associated with today, I will share with you some poems written by survivors:

WE WILL NEVER FORGET - AUSCHWITZ

by Alexander Kimel - Holocaust Survivor

We will never forget the selections at Auschwitz, Where Black Jackals condemned millions to gas, Right - death, left - life, right death... death ...death. The black finger, surrounded with barking dogs, Works like the Angel of Death, creating living hell. Children are torn apart from the tender embrace Of mothers, clinging to their treasures. Babies wailing from hunger, Parents parting tearfully with their children. Fathers shaken with helpless rage. The condemned form a column of trembling fear. Soon the mass of fainting humanity Is lead to the clean foyer of death. Disrobe quickly, take a shower and you will be fed. Food! Food! The hungry mass of disoriented humanity Awakens runs and fights to get into the chamber of gas. The heavy door closes and the cyclone dropped. Soon the parents choke and turn blue, Later the children turn rigid with death The people become a twisted load, Of intertwined limps and heads glued with blood. When the human pulp is ready for the works, Sondercommando quickly pull, The bodies apart, peel the gold from the mouths. And the remains are taken to the open pit, Where the bones are cleaned with fire, And the fat drained for human soap. Six days a week the Jackals drink beer, And rejoice doing the Devil's work. Sunday is the day of rest, the day When the Jackals ride to the Church, to praise God And assure the Salvation of their pious souls. Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles! In this Kingdom of Evil, There is no peace for the Righteous. It is the wicked that inherited This tortured World, engulfed In the red, milky, cry-absorbing fog, Guarding the wilted conscience of man.

Monument at Moriah
by Evelyn Roman- Holocaust Survivor

There stands a monument In memory of the innocent Children huddled together Rigid with terror Peering through the windows, They never can enter. Like devout processional Of a holy funeral The throng winds its way Bells suspend in the breeze Endless Kaddish prayers say. The oven doors were open wide, The world slept through this horrid rite. Forsaken, left to their own device A million children lost their lives. Through Spring returns year by year, From death new life can never rise. These hollow mute stone forms This courtyard now adorn, Their each and every size To sounds of bells gives rise "Keep your faith" they whisper "And thus avenge our demise." These bells toll for the living Reverberating through the head "As long as you go on remembering We shall endure as living dead, Make it your vigil now And pas it on ahead." * 

Inspired by the sculpture garden at the Moriah School in Engelwood, N.J., the work of an Israeli sculptor Edward T. Gordon. It is a monument erected in memory of the children who died in the Holocaust. It consists of 50 stone - bronze pieces, in various sizes, placed in a sunken courtyard. Each has a smooth interior window-heart containing a cast chime of a different size, form and tone.

More of these poems can be read here.

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Martin Niemoller: “First they came….”

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.  Genesis 12:3

We will not forget.