Rebecca  

One word comes to mind when I

think of the camps

                        Inhumanity

It was the inhumanity that killed

My family, my friends, and me

on that night of broken glass

My past was shattered

my life, destroyed

My dreams would never be the same

In Auschwitz, survival was my

only goal

With my sisters and mother by

my side, we worked for our lives

            If we showed weakness

                        Death

            If we showed tears

                        Death

Like the others, we were gassed in the end

but we never lost hope

Now that it’s over I’m finally free

The horrible nightmare of

the Holocaust is over

The inhumanity has finally

come to an end (at least for me)

Cousin David

from Antwerp

My wife and my boys,

The loves of my life.

Their smiling faces kept me going

Day after day.

The joyous thought of holding them

Made me the happiest

Man alive,

Until they were torn

From me…

Those horrible men

Who split us up,

Not telling anyone where the others were going.

How could anyone be so cruel?

Then, there was hope.

A relative of my wife,

An angel in the camp,

Thought they would return to me!

Every night, I dreamed,

How I longed to see their

Smiling faces.

How my life would change when

My wife and my boys returned.

I went to search for their smiling faces

And waited.

My hopes and dreams were crushed,

Smashed when I found out where they

Had gone.

I gave up, and decided to join

My wife,

My boys,

In heaven.

Jeremiah

My name if Jeremiah Zimmerman.

I am from Sighet,

Transylvania where I lived

With my wife and two

Daughters.  Before we left for

The camps, I spent long

hours studying the Talmud

and dreaming of my

children’s futures.

We ran from the ghetto to

The cattle car.  My family and I

Were scrunched in with many

Other Jews.  There was an

Over whelming smell.  As we

Got out of the cattle car at

The concentration camp, the SS

Officers forced my family and

I to the right.  I knew our destiny.

Matthew

It was the day of my

Birth, as well as

The day of my death.

All I was were the

Orange flames before me

That has engulfed those

Before.

I saw to horrid corpses

Being removed.  All

I could think of was it

I had moved

I wouldn’t have to bare

The pain.

Mothers, Daughters, fathers,

Sons.

All burned, and now me.