Never Forget

The Holocaust

In our past there was a place.

Containing not a name nor face.

A place dictated by fears,

And yet…

The memory disappears.

 

****

If you are but a man

And so am I,

Should we not have the right as to how we live and die?

 

Thus, a Jew is a man,

And a German as well;

What gave the right to determine the lives that fell?

 

No war was fought,

Nothing done,

Hitler single handedly exterminated and won.

 

Wearing a simple star,

What harm could it hold?

Now forever it’s their scar,

Burnt into the flesh of the lives untold.

 

****

They’ve entered a place,

A barbed wire hell,

Forever controlled by a raucous bell.

 

On sight they were killed,

Massive graves quickly filled.

 

Now they live in Satin’s playground,

Where love and laughter cannot be found.

 

Babies thrown and shot,

For their lives their mothers fought.

Is not the greatest gift life?

This concept now slashed with a knife.

 

Millions died and millions fell,

Eternally trapped in a blood thirsty hell.

 

Not a tear was shed,

For death was a pleasure,

Their fears are dead,

The end a treasure.

 

Lies were told,

Their lucidity never failed to unfold.

 

Though the torment rained,

And the power they gained,

No one dare breathe a word.

Thus, the screams remained silent, elapsed and unheard.

 

****

All this notorious cruelty caused by rage,

If only the madness was the one encaged.

 

A misfortune you say?

If they weren’t Jews it would have all been okay.

 

NO!

 

They took any lonely heart,

On which they choose to chew,

It very easily could have been you!

 

 

 

 

If for every just person God sheds two tears,

Have we not made an ocean of mirrors?

Mirrors reflecting every sad lonesome soul.

Every tiny child that had to pay the unjust toll?

 

We, today are the ones they cannot beat.

The damage done, too late to stop,

Though, their influence we can easily defeat!

 

If to remain silent and indifferent remains the greatest sin of all.

It’s time we become messengers to answer  the call.

 

So in a letter too late to send…

 

We remember,

We hear you,

And we will never forget.

 

Their memories we may not be able to reset,

But we can save our future all  the regret.

Reviews

[Peter Joseph Swanson]

Great poem!