Different Day by day I watch the laughing faces What’s the joke I don’t get it They just keep laughing
They didn’t always laugh They used to smile at me And talk to me And be my friends That all ended When Hitler began
Now They stare at me They point at me They laugh at me They scream Jüdisch at me
It’s taking over me A feeling I cannot hide from I don’t belong And I can’t stop hearing the words In my mind Even late at night They scream jüdisch in my head
Why am I different? I look just like them Why am I the mindless one? I get the same grades as them I love just like them I hurt just like them I lived the same life as them But I prayed at a temple Not a church
What made me different than them? What made me less desirable To have in the world Than them?
Next day Arriving in the schoolyard Too late The Germans are already here The German students that despise me Then I get beat up I am defending I take a hit to my right eye My eye swells up I black out
I wake up Alone In the schoolyard
I touch my lip I feel the scab Inevitable Scar on my skin Better than my soul’s scar ‘Cause I’m starting to believe What I thought was a lie I don’t deserve to live
I came home and cried As my mother tried to mend A hopelessly broken soul
Sometimes I smiled But if so only at home The only place I wasn’t alone The only place I belonged
Rumors spread like wildfire Through our little Jewish center A story that reaped fear in our hearts It was said "A large group of Jews Almost 20,000 total Had been moved Had been taken Out of their home Out of Germany To the Polish border The Poles rejected them And the Germans had abandoned them So they remained trapped Between the borders"
Their homes Their comfort Everything Was pulled right out from under them On October 27 Possibly October 28 It’s hard to trust a rumor But we remain fearful By the thought Of the same happening to us
A week passed And we were still safe Nothing had happened to us No deportation At least not yet
4 days later Returning home from school The radio static entered my mind Blurring and buzzing and spitting out random words Until it found a station
"Tragic Absolutely tragic Today November 7th In Paris, France A German Embassy Official Vom Rath Was shot He was hit twice Out of the five shots taken One can only guess who fired the shots A Jewish man" The radio faded
"Mama?" I asked "Why did that man Shot Vom Rath? Vom Rath Didn’t hurt him." My mother responded simply "I don’t know baby."
Static scratched my ears And I heard the radio speak again "Just goes to show How the Jewish Can’t be trusted. Be very aware of everything When in the presence of a Jew" With that My emotions flared Anger and hatred filled my heart Because this one man This one Jewish man Shot an official Now we all had to pay
Nothing happened in the days following No immediate deportation Just some more mocking at school
2 nights after The shooting of Vom Rath I was awakened in the night By shouting and shattering glass
As flickering fire reflected In my eyes My wet, somber eyes I watched my temple burn to the ground
"Hurry!" Mama shouted to me I jumped Out of my bed Raced down the stairs And into the cellar
Shouts of pain Everywhere Surrounding me Encasing me As I held myself And tried to hide From the horror In my own little corner
I got no sleep that night That November 9th night That night of terror That night of death That Night of Broken Glass
It was in the morning I awoke in the cellar Then I remembered The night before And I shook with fear What pain Would this day Bring to me I emerged From my cellar Saw my mother Standing in our kitchen And I watched tears Flow down her face
Then my eyes saw The worst sight They had ever seen My papa On the ground Lying in a puddle Of his own blood
I couldn’t think My papa? Dead? How can it be true? How could a man kill him? Why did no one stop them?
Angry at the world I walked the streets Observing Other damages Though not really seeing I didn’t feel alive
Shattered glass Strewn on the ground Women crying Men bleeding Shops robbed Store windows broken Only the Jews Only we were hurt Because they think we are different
What made them want To burn my temple? What made them want To make me feel such pain? It’s because they think I’m different than them What makes me different than them?
Once again My doubts began I don’t deserve to live
It’s not my right Because I’m a Jew But is that right I’m still not sure But for now I know I still want to live
Works Cited Espinosa, Daniel, Cristina Durana, Luigi Weber, and Sarah Zuckerman. "Ghettoes: Diet." Ghettoes. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://cghs.dadeschools.net/ib_holocaust2001/Ghettoes/diet/diet.htm>. "Kristallnacht." Wikipedia. Jan. 2009. Wikipedia. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht>. "The Night of Broken Glass." The History Place. 01. The History Place. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-knacht.htm>. All photographs from: "Photo Archives" The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/photo/> |