Holocaust Remembrance Week

Holocaust Remembrance Week is hosted by The Introverted Reader.  The only connection I have to WWII was my grandfather who passed last year.  He was not stationed near combat in Europe, but he was stationed overseas on the Azores.  He was proud of his service and was a member of the Greatest Generation.  I have no Jewish ties, but as any human on this planet should react, I react with utter disbelief and disgust when I read or hear about the atrocities of the Holocaust.

In honor of those who survived and those who lost their lives, I want to point out that beyond memoir, fiction, and nonfiction, poetry also demonstrates the innate horror of the Holocaust and can emotionally rip through readers’ hearts with its use of imagery.

Holocaust Poetry compiled by Hilda Schiff is one such collection that will bring the horrors and the simple joys many of the victims and their families experienced to life.  Here’s an excerpt from my review of this collection:

“Beyond the poems in the collection depicting the horrors and the losses of persecuted people in Germany, the poems of bystanders, perpetrators, and others are surprising.  They talk of how they stood by and did nothing, how they want to help even if they are too late.  Despite the time for help being long passed, these narrators express not guilt so much as regret — a deep regret at having been so paralyzed by fear that they did nothing or acted contrary to who they believed themselves to be.”

If reading an entire book of poetry is not for you, Words That Burn Within Me by Hilda Stern Cohen combines poetry with prose and nonfiction observations. This book is a compilation of her writings that her loving husband and friends put together after her death.  Please check out a part of my review:

“While the collection does illustrate one Jewish woman’s journey during WWII and the Holocaust, it stands as a testament — a record — of how inexcusably these humans were treated and how their debasement impacted their lives, their relationships, their faith, and their souls.”

Whether you take a moment to reflect on the Holocaust or pick up a book to learn more about that time in history, you are sure to feel a deep emotional attachment to those who lived through and endured some of the most horrifying events in history.  We all could learn a lesson from the past — to treat one another with more dignity and respect in our every day lives.