Task: Create a poem from a quotation taken from your reading about the Holocaust.  Show what you learned about prejudice or tolerance in an acrostic or free-style poem.

MLR: Reading A5 - Understand stories and expository texts from the perspective of the social and cultural context in which they were created.

"Shadows Talking" by CD

Mama, your words are planted in my mind,
If I keep on living, is it hope I will find?

To your words I wish to aspire,
But it is hard to hope when you're facing the fire.

The memory of you burns in my soul,
If I am a fire, then you are my coal.

We are now shadows, things of the past.
We have watched our families perish in the swirling gas.

Look what they have done to our tattered souls,
As we cower in the ground like hunted moles.

They continue to drown us in bloody water,
Give us yellow stars as our marker.

Does anyone see us, skeletons walking,
Or are we just dreams, like nightmares stalking.

For you, for now, I'll try to cope.
For "As long as there is life, there is always hope."
 

“A Place Far Worse Than Hell" 
by T. N.

A curtain of darkness falls over this prison
That we are forced to call a home,
And we dream...

We dream of better times,
Where the food is plentiful and we can feel no pain,
Where everyone is equal,
We know this peaceful slumber
Must come to a harsh end,
We are awoken...

Awoken by the horrible sound of the Nazi’s yell,
Awoken by the noises of "a place far worse than hell”,
Awoken by the sound of pain in another’s scream,
Why must we be awoken
From the peace in our dreams?

And as we work and sweat and scream and go the extra mile,
The Nazis laugh and whip us and throw dead bodies in a pile,
And then the camp becomes too dark for us to work any more.
We are chased into our barracks so that we can sleep and snore,
But after a moment of peace for all Jewish women and men,
We find ourselves living in prison once again -
“A place far worse than hell.”
 

 “And Here My Troubles Began” 
by L. J.

A is for all of the blood we lost to get where we are today.
N is for the Nazis that performed this awful massacre of mankind.
D is for the death of the Jews that triggered the tears from our eyes.

H is for the heroes that tried to act against the violence.
E is for the entire nation that helped us to be free once more.
R is for the rest of the world that silenced those who had a voice.
E is for the eternal bleeding of the family’s hearts.

M is for mercy that the Nazis had not.
Y is for the youth that was lost.

T is for the terror that struck us like an arrow to the heart.
R is for the racism that was inflicted upon us.
O is for our great opponent that is so horrific.
U is for the utter silence left when all is lost.
B is for the birth of new freedom.
L is for the love that keeps us going day after day.
E is for the entry of the Nazis into our peaceful lives.
S is for the suffering that we had to put up with everyday.

B is for the beginning of mass destruction.
E is for the elite Aryans or so they thought.
G is for the gas chambers that cleaved life from so many.
A is for the army that stole the lives of helpless Jews.
N is for the night which was cold and dark.
 

“Sorrow”
by J.M.

“I will remember”

The deportation
The devastation
The people fall
The soldier’s call

 Women to the left, men to the right
My father slips into the night
I sit on a stool, they cut my hair
I look at my arm, a number is there

 I look for my mother, she sits and weeps
My little sister, she could not keep
I stare outside at the snow
Is it really, I do not know

 I lay in my barrack, I drift away
I dream of freedom, I long for that day
I wake up, it’s already tomorrow
Another day, filled with sorrow

“I will remember”

“From Your Mouth, to God’s Ears –
If God Has Not Forgotten Us” 
By M.J.

F is for the fires in the chimneys.
R is for the reek of the dead.
O is for the orders given to kill all Jews.
M is for the mites spreading disease.

Y is for yelling, agonized and painful.
O is for one’s forgotten strength.
U is for unending death and everlasting chaos.
R is for rain, cold on our faces, drank to give life.

M is for men fighting for freedom.
O is for options, none of which we have
U is for underdog, pushed down in wrath.
T is for the time ‘til we’re all dead from weakness.
H is for hatred to every Nazi.

T is for tatatata, machine guns striking out.
O is for oppression, the word of our sadness.

G is for God, helping through love, hope, and faith.
O is for oblivious Nazis to our cries.
D is for deadly chimneys awaiting.
‘S is for spreading sickness everywhere.

E is for evil lurking in shadows.
A is for Auschwitz, a horrible killing camp.
R is for rage, building inside.
S is for soldiers, fighting for another.

I is for insanity, common here.|
F is for fire, incinerating the dead.

G is for games they play to kill.
O is for cheap opium, ineffective to our pain.
D is for dread, a huge part of our fear. 

H is for the help that never came.
A is for Aryan, Hitler is one.
S is for sinister plots planned by him.

N is for name, replaced by a number.
O is for overhead, where free birds fly.
T is for tired, which we all are. 

F is for fear, surrounding us.
O is for optimal, the killings.
R is for remembrance,  the only thing that will be left.
G is for God, watching in the skies.
O is for old, none of us are.  We die early.
T is for timid, we run from the guards.
T is for typhus, killing more than the guns do.
E is for empty; our very souls have been taken.
N is for never, the time we will be saved. 

Us is for until then, we shall hold onto what is left.
S is for suspended between time’s gnarled fingers.