Holocaust—the music blasts my ears

As the protruding bones and empty eyes

Rip away my heart, my soul, my pride.

This was reality in my world –only a tear ago.

Children weeping, staring, even smiling now and then,

Full of knowledge the ovens await, if they are lucky

To miss the warm medical tent full of pain and blood;

Experiments beyond imagination on human beings.

Six million died in the camps alone,

Unrecognizable number—I cannot conceive;

But Lili’s face awakens them all; she stares

Into oblivion for all the ages hence—just one.

Connect with one, grieve for one, ache for one;

Now multiply by six million….pain unbearable

Nightmares unfathomable, a generation of ones lost,

To ignite a single monster’s Master Plan.

Observing students watch in silence,

And I wonder if they understand their responsibility

To Lili…to the rest….to their own children-to-be

This can happen again all too easily.

Agonizing refrains; tears in heaven drone on,

Raptly they sit, staring at this history without feeling;

It was reality, blood, and bone, and dying only a tear ago.

Awaken them…terrify them….it must never happen again.

Claudia Jones  (Teacher)
Sugar Land, Texas
  February 3, 1999

                                                Written  after viewing Mr. Madden's Holocaust Production

                                                                                                
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