Holocaust Poetry

Holocaust
by Barbara Sonek

We played, we laughed
we were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. We had dreams, then we had no hope. We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind can not happen again. Remember us, for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away.

1. What is your initial reaction to this poem? My initial reaction is that she is speaking on behalf of the children who were included in the extermination of the Jews, though she says that we were taken and thrown into the fire which means that she is speaking on behalf of the jews. This poem does make the audience sympathetic or cause them to have pity.
2. How does the author use 'we' in this poem? She uses 'we' to represent that she is speaking on behalf of the children who were taken, she may have written this poem if she survived the holocaust or she could have written this poem as memorial for those who were part of the holocaust.
3. What are the verbs used in the first sentence? We played, we laughed, we were loved.
4. What are the verbs used in the second sentence? How do they contrast with those used in the first sentence?  We were ripped from our parent arms and thrown into the fire. The second sentence is basically the opposite of the first sentence, in the first sentence she is saying how they were happy and loved by their parents, and then they were taken and put in concentration camps.
5. What effect does the listing of 'lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers'? What is it meant to signify? That the children who were taken had futures and they were bright futures, many children were looking forward to adulthood and saw themselves in many years, happy and surrounded by family but they were taken away by the Nazi Germans and now that future seemed bitterly unlikely. They were surrounded by death and despair.
6. What simile is used in the poem and what effect does it have? We were taken away in the  dead of night like cattle in cars, the use of this simile gives the effect that they were treated like animals.
7. How has the poet represented herself in the last sentence? She represents herself as many children who were killed and calls out to the audience to remember them for they were the ones, who lives and dreams were stolen away.
8. If you could communicate to this person, a victim of the Holocaust, what would you want to say? What do you feel that you must do in your life as a response to this poem?