Vad Yashem: Killing a Million Children (part 6)…by Robert M. Katzman
Vad Yashem
Killing a Million Children
(part 6)
by Robert M. Katzman © November 7, 2017
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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
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