Holocaust Remembrance: A Memorial In Time

Holocaust Remembrance: A Memorial In Time

In secret and in silence,
they were shipped away from their homelands,
forced into ghettos,
scrimping and saving their money,
in the hopes of being able
to feed their families on a single day.

Then the time of progroms reigned,
where men, women and children alike
were butchered,
slaughtered in pits dug by their own hands.
While others were forcibly detained,
jam packed into cattle cars
full of human excrement and filth,
and sent to those places
held in high secrecy.

In those secret forgotten places,
the world stills as time becomes meaningless,
and inhuman brutality is the victor of the day.
Some are given mercifully short detainment
and are gassed immediately.
While others work their fingers to the bone,
starve and become ill,
and weep as they watch their bretheren
slowly waste away,
fading into nothing.

Today is a day of rememberance
for those who died,
for those that suffered and survived,
for the children of survivors,
and for all who acknowledge
this sad brutal part of our
universal human history.

May the past never be repeated.
May we learn from our past.
And may we never forget what has
come before us.


Author's Notes: Today, April 14, 2009, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. And though we are not by definition Jewish, it is still a deep part of our universal human history. It must be preserved and remembered. There is a prayer on Beliefnet.com that says it all, so I am posting it here, as well. It was found on a scrap of paper at the liberation of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany:

'Prayer for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have bourne be their forgiveness. '

May we never forget the past, so that it will never again be the future.