Victor Bloom - Holocaust

Everyday Jewish life.
Secure and happy,
At least relatively so.

Hooligans in the street,
Nazis, swastikas.
Shouting, the breaking of glass
Burning synagogues,
Closed businesses.

No more school,
No more life-as-it-was.

Get out of your house!
Pack your bags!
No questions!
(Or I’ll kill you)

Stand in the street.
Neighbors jeer.
(Love thy neighbor)
March to ghetto
Crowded, cold.
No privacy.
(All in this together,
Separate) .

Alone in a crowd.

Out of the ghetto
To the train station
To a better place.

Hope renewed.

Cattle cars-
Packed, freezing, death.
Where to?
Oblivion.

Here at the destination.
“Arbeit Macht Frei”
Shaving, undressing
To the showers

Finally to be clean.
Finally.

Victor Bloom

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/holocaust/