Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

Vad Yashem: Killing a Million Children (part 6)…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Bewilderment,Children,Depression and Hope,Israel,Jewish Themes,Life & Death,My Own Personal Hell,Rage! — Bob at 3:26 pm on Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Vad Yashem

Killing a Million Children

(part 6)

by Robert M. Katzman © November 7, 2017

 

I didn’t want to come here

I’ve been here before

I know what’s awaiting me

So much older now

I need to feel it again

The jolt of horror

To remind myself

I am still here

We are still here

 

I wander past exhibits

I know all of it so well

Imprinted on my soul

Like tattoos on their arms:

Nazis / Swastikas / Seig Heil!

Blame everything on the Jews

The Rise to Power

Conquering Europe

Ghettos Sealed Off

Railroad Cattle Cars

Striped Ragged Clothes

Empty-Eyed Skeletons

 

But no one had any idea about this

Killing millions not so easy to conceal

Unless the millions didn’t matter

 

My people are from

Poland and Lithuania

To us, Jews, my people are

Galitzianers and Litvaks

All who couldn’t escape

Their souls are here

I wonder if any of my children

Have any of their faces?

Drifting from pictures of

Smoking Crematorium Chimneys

Inevitably brings me

To the Children’s Memorial

 

Grasping the heavy door’s handle

I enter blackness

Overwhelming blackness

Above me

Below me

Enveloping me

A million twinkling lights

For a million slaughtered children

I feel faint

Disoriented

Reach for an invisible support

My mind swoons

I feel the breath of them

Flowing through me

I feel their pools of blood

Flowing through me

 

I know them

I know about beaten children

I know a beaten child

For years

And years

No one came to save me

And something died inside

 

I come to connect

With their hopelessness

I come to feel the slashing pain

I come to feel–anything

I pray to their unavailable God

Where were you

When they needed you?

I pray to my fabricated God

Where were you

When I needed you?

 

And I slumped to the floor

Hidden in the blackness

Soaked in my tears

No hero ever came

I got what I came for

I am destroyed

 

 

 

(to be continued)

Driving in the Dark: Lost in Israel (part 1) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3736

Bob in Israel: Crusader Castle and Caraway Seeds (part 2) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3748

Joy’s Ashes in Israel: An Independent Woman (part 3) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3761

Marsha Michael, Who Solved My Problems in Israel (part 4) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3771

Tel Aviv, Israeli radio and Unexpected Art (part 5) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3796

Vad Yashem: Killing Millions of Children (part 6) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3811

Chicago man Watches Death of Samurais in Israel (part 7)//www.differentslants.com/?p=3846

Traveling Alone, Traveling Together (part 8) //www.differentslants.co/?p=3865

An American Jew’s Bold New Plan for a Sane, Peaceful and Prosperous State of Palestine (part 9) //www.differentslants.co/?p=3887

David’s Star in Israel (part 10) //www.differentslants.co/?p=3907

Sleeping With the Bedouins (part 11-a)

 https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3962

Pleading with Fate in Jerusalem (part 12) https://www.differentslants.com/?p=3980

7 Comments »

Comment by Brad Dechter

November 7, 2017 @ 4:09 pm

Out of despair grows hope. Thank you for sharing this. We all need to be grateful for all the good we have around us- you have helped to remind me of this in your dark thoughts.
Again, thanks for sharing!
Love Ya Bob!
Brad

Comment by bruce

November 7, 2017 @ 4:23 pm

what an additional heavy sobering aspect to add to your already emotionally charged journey. You have broad shoulders my brother.

Comment by Charlie Newman

November 7, 2017 @ 6:28 pm

…& you are the phoenix, Brother…

Comment by Jim Payne

November 7, 2017 @ 8:03 pm

Yes, there is darkness. You remind me so well. I feel what you say. You say what you feel. Yes, there is darkness.

Comment by mikki mendelsohn

November 7, 2017 @ 8:38 pm

you never cease to amaze me how you can touch my soul with your words. – what agony we need to remind ourselves- to feel the holocaust as if we were there. Now the children of survivors are traumatized. Will it ever stop? I think not.

Comment by Don Larson

November 8, 2017 @ 3:54 pm

Bob,

A very moving emotional experience.

Your current road is the one you waited a long time to travel.

Don

Comment by Brad Bliss

November 9, 2017 @ 5:37 am

Bob, you wrote it beautifully and I’m so sorry you wrote it. Looking forward to your return. BB

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>