A Poem About the Holocaust

I recently spoke at the Laboratory Theater after a live performance of the Diary of Anne Frank.  One of the cast members heard me speak and wrote to me that my story moved her so much that she was inspired to write this poem.  She had heard stories of the concentration camps but had not heard stories of work camps.

They Shuffled Out Now Liberated


I can see them now
The old, the young, the weak
Questions mean little
When there's no answers that we seek

If God made the world
He made it diversified 
Then who created what lay before us?
Evil, personified.

Created were cages
Where no one could hear them cry
Built by the hands of slaves 
A place to live, a place to work, a place to die

They turned beautiful earth 
Into a killing machine
Anguish and sorrow
Cover what was peaceful and green

They paid in blood
For crimes they didn't commit
Pushed to all human limits
Until their bodies would remit

Stone cold eyes saw the suffering 
The soulless were well versed
In bringing perdition to the world
As though each action were rehearsed

When the cages were opened
There was little left to save
Empty shells that slowly shuffle 
Bodies ready for the grave

For many empty years
Over the planet they did roam
What is there left to do
When you've no place to call home.


~ a poem by Aricka S.