Holocaust Poems
Liberty
by James Whitcomb Riley
New Castle, July 4, 1878
or a hundred years the pulse of time
Has throbbed for Liberty;
For a hundred years the grand old clime
Columbia has been free;
For a hundred years our country's love,
The Stars and Stripes, has waved above.
Away far out on the gulf of years--
......
First They Came For The Jews
by Martin Niemöller
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 trade unionists
and I did not speak out
......
The Burning Of The Books
by Bertolt Brecht
When the Regime
commanded the unlawful books to be burned,
teams of dull oxen hauled huge cartloads to the bonfires.
Then a banished writer, one of the best,
scanning the list of excommunicated texts,
became enraged: he'd been excluded!
He rushed to his desk, full of contemptuous wrath,
to write fierce letters to the morons in power —
......
Passion
by Charlotte Brontë
SOME have won a wild delight,
By daring wilder sorrow;
Could I gain thy love to-night,
I'd hazard death to-morrow.
Could the battle-struggle earn
One kind glance from thine eye,
How this withering heart would burn,
The heady fight to try !
......
If this is a man
by Josh Lyndon
A man who commited no crime,
Yet forced to do the hardest time.
They shaved his head,
Gave him straw for a bed.
There was something special they knew,
But he was a convicted jew.
The nazi's seeked to destroy,
Primo Levi the geniouse boy.
Sent to work in the cold all day.
Not a bad word would he say.
......
Speechless
by Michael R. Burch
We are left speechless by man's inhumanity to man. This collection includes poems about the Holocaust, Auschwitz, Gaza and the Palestinian Nakba ("Catastrophe"), Hiroshima, 9-11, war, and other forms of human violence...
Speechless
by Ko Un
translation by Michael R. Burch
At Auschwitz
piles of glasses
......
Survivors
by Michael R. Burch
These are poems about the victims and survivors of great disasters and tragedies: the Holocaust, the Palestinian Nakba, the Trail of Tears, 9-11 ...
Survivors
by Michael R. Burch
(for the victims and survivors of 9/11 and their families)
In truth, we do not feel the horror
of the survivors,
......
"Auschwitz Rose" and other Holocaust Poems
by Michael R. Burch
These are Holocaust poems and translations by Michael R. Burch.
Epitaph for a Child of the Holocaust
by Michael R. Burch
I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.
......
Holocaust Poetry
by Michael R. Burch
These are Holocaust poems and translations by Michael R. Burch.
Something
by Michael R. Burch
for the children of the Holocaust
Something inescapable is lost—
......
If this is a man
by Josh Lyndon
A man who commited no crime,
Yet forced to do the hardest time.
They shaved his head,
Gave him straw for a bed.
There was something special they knew,
But he was a convicted jew.
The nazi's seeked to destroy,
Primo Levi the geniouse boy.
Sent to work in the cold all day.
Not a bad word would he say.
......
