Sunday 26th May 2024
Life is the most beautiful gift we can receive
(Batsheva Dagan - Auschwitz survivor)
Your soul has been sucked from behind your eyes
You no longer have a reason to light your face with a smile
Your body aches and every limp limb hurts
You shuffle your bare feet through the dry, dusty dirt
The sun beats down upon your dry, itchy skin
Your hair is gone and you are so thin
Minimal food and drink are provided
Unfathomable how humans are so misguided
A misguided race that sought to cleanse our society
Leaving Jews, gypsies, Poles and prisoners with anxiety
No case to argue - no right of reply
Just millions sent to gas chambers to die
The empty suitcases now tell a story
Forming part of an horrific time in history
Shoes that once belonged to little children
Lives cut short as Nazis ruthlessly killed them
Someone’s mother, father, sister, brother
Someone’s aunty, uncle, grandfather or grandmother
Friends who once laughed together
Now gasp for air together
Millions of people who had committed no crime
Had their lives cut short - they ran out of time
What they suffered we can never fully understand
Even if it were relayed to us first hand
We must never ever forget the past
We owe it to those who were callously gassed
We owe it to those that endured that hell
For it’s their story we must continue to tell
Joanne C Hicks copyright ©️ Pembrokeshire Poet
Those that do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santayana)
