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Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. I have always wanted to write a Holocaust poem; this isn’t it. I don’t think I will ever manage it. It was too terrible a time to comprehend.
It’s important to remember that it wasn’t just Jews who were butchered, but gypsies, homosexuals, the old, sick, disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses: anyone considered a deviant or a burden.
Whenever I feel sorry for myself – I’m too cold, too hungry, have too little money – I think of the victims of the concentration camps, all they lost; how they suffered; the unbelievable cruelty; and I feel grateful for all I have.
Anyway, I wanted to mark the day; it’s too easy to forget. Look at what happened in Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur; and tell me it won’t happen again.
HMD” _mce_href=”http://vimeo.com/18623986″>HMD”>http://vimeo.com/18623986″>HMD 2011 Untold Stories from Holocaust”>http://vimeo.com/hmd2701″>Holocaust Memorial Day Trust on Vimeo.
How it Happens
I spent the day with Mrs B, 90.
Her husband liked to get about.
America, you know; for the Big Fight. With friends.
She does not care for curry,
Americans, foreign travel.
Oh, but rather likes The Jews.
She’s glad that German business never happened here.
He was fond of the ladies, you know.
Almost: Mosley. Brown Shirts. Oxford Street.
Dreadful. I stayed home.
The Laughing Housewife 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I blogged about this topic today http://littleexplorer.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/arbeit-macht-nicht-frei/
I completely agree with you, it is barely impossible to write a poem about the Shoah, which is why I always think Primo Levi’s poem “If this is a man” is incredible for its emotional power and historical significance.
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Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. The more people talk and write and remember these events, the less likely it is that they will happen again. One can hope.
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In answer to your email, Tilly, this is where my comment should have appeared. I also left one on the irritating husbands post, and that one’s gone too. I must be going dulally.
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I wanted to write a poem on the twin towers, but haven’t managed it so far. Some things are just too mammoth or too near to approach directly. Who was it said that after the Holocaust there could never be any more art? You,ve at least proved that to be untrue.
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Thank you, David. I think that quote was untrue even as it was said; some great – if harrowing – art came from the camps.
I have written a couple of 9/11 poems. Perhaps that was easier for me because it happened in my lifetime.
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A very good rememberance post.
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Such
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Such evil in the world. How can we ever complain about anything when those events happened to so many?
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An excellent philosophy.
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