Where are we?

A very strange name

Lies

Striped pajamas

Shaved heads

Experiments on humans

Skeletons

Demons

It takes two to four minutes

Frightened

Worthless Jew

Pits to burn bodies

I won’t go to their gas chambers

I’m not going to become ashes

They took away my siblings

They took away my identity

They’re not going to take my soul

Diminish the race

A tragedy among tragedies

Why did God spare me?

I repeat the line “In Auschwitz” after each stanza (excluding the first) to emphasize to the reader what memories are revived when a survivor thinks of Auschwitz. Most survivors of this genocide find it very hard to talk or think about the Holocaust, and my poem hopefully shows the reason why. These images that the reader pictures when reading each line were the reality of the survivors and these memories are forever burned into the survivor's brains.

The first stanza shows the innocence of the Jews at the beginning of the Holocaust. People heard stories but never fully believed them, that is until they were brought there themselves. They had no idea what was awaiting them upon their arrival out of the crammed box cars. They had never even heard of Auschwitz, and now that name means so much to them.

The following 4, 4-lined stanzas represent the horrific sights, sounds and atrocities seen in Auschwitz. These provide vivid images for the reader. The following 2, 4-lined stanzas represent the thought process of the Holocaust survivors while in Auschwitz. Everything they loved or cared about was ripped away from them. The survivors are here today because through all the suffering and pain and torture, they wouldn’t let Hitler take their souls. They were not going to be burned, they weren’t going to be one of the millions of dead bodies. They barely hung onto life but they were spared from the death count. My poem was written to tell the stories of these survivors and try to give the reader a tiny glimpse into what they have experienced.