The Holocaust: Poem

The Holocaust

By:Dhanya Thiyagarajan

There was a time where many people were harassed,

A brutal massacre that would surpass

This was the era, when Hitler reigned in power,

while watching people’s hopes and dreams fall like it was happy hour.

He chose the path of violence towards many Jews,

Not many survived because they were abused.

Overtime, this crime became much worse

loved ones were sent off in all directions,this felt like a curse

A yellow star which was a symbol of their identity,

was a reason for them living independently

If rules were not followed, they were fiercely punished,

For most people it meant that their lives were finished.

Any opinions that had been expressed was taken away,

Some were hiding throughout night and day.

Laws were enforced to be followed by everyone

All of a sudden it seemed like there was no light or sun.

Camps like Auschwitz were soon filled up with slaves,

Jews petrified of being shot into their graves.

Not having room to sleep with everyone crammed together tightly,

Nazi lights were flashing over places very brightly.

Every morning was spent cultivating in the fields,

Every Jew working, but not stopping till Nazi’s say yeild.

Never shown honor or dignified respect,

Feeling burning stings of disdain and neglect.

The people were told that they need to shower

little did they know that they were going to die that hour

They were thrown into gas chambers and died

and Nazis watched them with great pride

Although, the prisoners were stubbornly strong,

Indeed determined to stay alive for long.

So many innocent lives were killed

In order to make Hitler’s plans fulfilled.

The dictator thought that children were important

His belief that they were the future was constant

We must always remember and recall,

The Holocaust that took the breaths of all.

How Could Something Like the Holocaust Happen?

Artifact #1: Hitler Youth

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Artifact #2: Propaganda



Artfact #3:

 First they Came…...
“First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.” -

In Hitler Youth kids from a young age are taught Nazi ideals, to follow Hitler, and to be ready for the war. The youth camps were mandatory after a certain year and were run similarly to a military camp. This was one of the reasons for the Holocaust. Even though the Holocaust was a tragic event causing many to die, Hitler had a master plan in which he had everything very well planned out. He had thought out every step in the process and was able sustain it for a period of time. He had convinced. The purpose of the Hitler Youth was to prepare kids a from a young age to become great leaders. He believed that the kids were leaders of the future generation and he wanted to teach kids his ideologies so they could take over his position once he was gone and so that they could pass it on generation after generation. The kids in Hitler Youth did noy know any better because they were not taught anything else except Nazi ideology. They were manipulated and were told that everything Hitler did was right and was for their own well being. The kids believed it because he was really persuasive in this aspect.



In artifact two,the picture portrays the horror and the hardship that the Jews went through throughout their Holocaust experience. This shows how successful hitler was in making everyone obey to him. He oppressed people and made them do anything they want because every single Jew was his slave. No one spoke an unnecessary word because they were terrified of Hitler. They knew that if they spoke the truth or spoke their opinion they would be punished terribly to the point where they might not even live to see the next day. Hitler made sure that everyone was oppressed to him. Something like the Holocaust could happen because all the Jews were afraid of Hitler and since they did not want to die, they had no choice but to follow his rules.
This poem shows how independent each and every person was during the Holocaust. Families were separated in the beginning and taken away in all different directions. After that the individual would have no clue how they were and even if they were alive or not. This poem also brings back the point where everyone was terrified of Hitler. He was a dictator who killed many innocent people. He made sure that there was no chance of a revolt by the Jews because everyone was scared of him. When the author of the poem says that there was no one left to speak out for him, I think he means that all of family and loved ones were taken away from him. He had no one, and he was left all alone and had to go through the whole Holocaust process indepently.

Relationship Between a Passage in Night and an Artifact

Passage from Night:

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as

long as God Himself.
Never” (Weisel 34).

This passage in the book Night was written by Elie Wiesel in which he talks about the horrors he went through on his first few days in the concentration camp. This is very emotional because it shows how much Elie has changed from being a very religious person to saying that his God was murdered. He starts to question if god really does exist and why god has not helped them. He had seen many innocent lives get killed which included children. These young infants that had no knowledge of life or experienced it were killed because they were no help to the Nazis. Wiesel had seen these children get thrown into the gas chambers and and witnessed their death. In this passage there is a loss of faith which is reflected throughout the whole book and throughout the Holocaust itself. While reading this passage I could picture the scene in my mind. Its almost like Elie is sat in the middle of a dark room staring at something and everyone listening to him in complete silence. There is a use of personification when he says that the moments murdered his God. The events that took place during the Holocaust caused many people to lose faith in their God. The passage is filled with imagery because he talks about the children’s bodies and how that transformed into smoke under a silent sky. It is also very interesting at how the passage ends with the words never. The never at the end of the excerpt makes it seemed like the whole passage can be summed up into that one word.

Artifact: Poetry
Tale of a Sprinter, in the Winter of 1938 by Sudeep Pagedar

THE PAST -
I am an athlete from Berlin,
my feet are fast and swift.
I can run faster than anyone!
Truly, this is the Lord's gift!

Any race I participate in,

I always come in first,
for I tell myself, "I HAVE to win";
it is like a great thirst.

Even if someone, somehow passes me,
I put on an extra burst of speed
and run past him, leaving him behind;thus, I take the lead.

I once thought, "If I keep running this way,
I might be in the Olympics, some day..."

THE PRESENT -
But now the year is nineteen-thirty-eight
And for my dreams, it's just too late.

My running days are all gone,
I'm not going to see tomorrow's dawn.

Yes, it is true
that I can run very fast;
But it is also true
that I am a Jew...

There's no running, from the Holocaust.

This poem is written by Sudeep Pagedar in which he talks about his life before the Holocaust and then he talks about his present day life. Sudeep explains that he has a strong passion for running. He talks about how he wins his races by always beating the guy who passes him and says that his dream is to one day compete in the Olympics. When the poem fast forwards to the present day, he says that it is too late to go after his dream. He gives up on his running and he is scared. Sudeep is very scared and knows that he is going to die because he says that he will not see tomorrow’s dawn. This shows that once the Holocaust started any dream that anyone had was destroyed immediately. Loss of faith is seen throughout the poem. When he talks about achieving his dreams being too late, and that he is not going to see tomorrow’s dawn he is losing hope in life. In the poem, the writer sums up his piece by stating the fact that the Holocaust cannot be ignored and once you were in it, there was no getting out. 

 

In both scenarios the theme in loss of faith is present. Elie is losing faith because throughout all of their struggles God was never there to help them and save them. He starts to ask himself the question of does God really exist. But even though he starts to lose faith in God he still has respect which can be seen by the fact that he chooses to capitalize the G in God. In Sudeep's case, he loses faith in his dream because he knows that once your pulled into the mess of the Holocaust there is no getting out. He has excepted the fact that he is going to die and there is nothing he could do. If he fought for his life and spoke up he was just going to die earlier. Also in both pieces there is idea of silence present because both of the characters are talkih about how there life changed after the Holocaust.