I wish there was a word to describe the way I feel every time I read about the Holocaust or 9/11. A way to express the disgust I feel despite years of comprehension. I consider myself to be very emotionally stable, the typical “Oh’ I don’t cry” kind of guy, but what I read last week is where I draw the line. How can one not be appalled, question humanity and the good in the world when humans, our brothers and sisters, can do such terrible things to one another? While the overall information from the essays in Images from the Holocaust was not new to me, most of the individual stories were. The first story that shocked me was when Henriette Kaplan remembers, “I was told by Jewish friends who lived near Nuremberg that they were taken by the
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One of the poems however, will stay with me for the rest of my life. They Had a System by Yala Korwin may be one of the most powerful and haunting poems I have ever read. The poem depicts the story of a young girl going to work so she can buy food for her family and then never returning. Korwin writes, “Then, a postcard arrived. Just a few words scribbled with the girl’s hand: Dear Mama. I’m well. Work isn’t hard. Don’t Worry… Her mother worried… She waited for another post card with an address on it. It never came. They had a system” (41, Images from the Holocaust). I’m not even a parent and I felt the emptiest felling inside after reading that poem. The idea that this poor mother had no answer as to whether her child was alive or dead, and that she even had worry about something is awful. In my opinion, there are few things harder than being in a state of limbo. This mother has no ability to answer the question of where her daughter is; yet she continues to wait for her to return. I can’t even imagine the psychological and emotional damage this mother must have gone through. This poem perfectly describes the a resounding feeling that most Jews had during this time; that the only they could was wait for a miracle because their was no way to fight and the light at the end of the tunnel was so far away it couldn’t even be
One of the poems however, will stay with me for the rest of my life. They Had a System by Yala Korwin may be one of the most powerful and haunting poems I have ever read. The poem depicts the story of a young girl going to work so she can buy food for her family and then never returning. Korwin writes, “Then, a postcard arrived. Just a few words scribbled with the girl’s hand: Dear Mama. I’m well. Work isn’t hard. Don’t Worry… Her mother worried… She waited for another post card with an address on it. It never came. They had a system” (41, Images from the Holocaust). I’m not even a parent and I felt the emptiest felling inside after reading that poem. The idea that this poor mother had no answer as to whether her child was alive or dead, and that she even had worry about something is awful. In my opinion, there are few things harder than being in a state of limbo. This mother has no ability to answer the question of where her daughter is; yet she continues to wait for her to return. I can’t even imagine the psychological and emotional damage this mother must have gone through. This poem perfectly describes the a resounding feeling that most Jews had during this time; that the only they could was wait for a miracle because their was no way to fight and the light at the end of the tunnel was so far away it couldn’t even be