Lives Lost, Autumn Leaves Fallen
The night before I lay awake, envisioning about what would happen in the marrow,
My family and I would be taken away, to a destiny not known.
We would be packed up and shipped away to somewhere with no life,
And on our clothes, The Star of David would be sewn.
As they threw us into each car, I fell down but no one helped me up,
From that moment on, I knew I was therefore on my own.
Countless days and nights I wasted my life, dreaming of the war to end,
Only to realize that never again could my sadness be shown.
When they shut the door, I felt like my life was coming to an end,
Only a glimpse of light would remain in my mind.
All through the night, I could hear the car rolling over the tracks,
And not a single memory in my mind could I find.
Pounding through the mud my loved ones and I walked,
Countless people tripped, and never got up.
The will to survive seemed to be escaping my body,
The only reason I was living was because of what would be in one cup and one plate.
Assigned to a number, a bunk, and a job,
Of what seemed to be soulless humans, being treated like the filthiness that covered their faces.
I looked around and couldn’t tell anyone apart from the other,
Their hair was cut off for money and numbers tattooed on their arms like animals.
Squinting into the scorching sun as the third tear dribbled down my cheek,
I saw the other’s who looked like lifeless bodies being tortured to work by day.
By night we were Jews, who had nothing to say, eat or live for,
To live till tomorrow and until the war was over, all we could do was pray.
Only one word could describe the way I felt after I saw that horrible sight,
That one sickening word was nauseous.
The filthy naked bodies pilled on top of each other,
I would also remember another word which was atrocious.
Looking up into the sky, I saw something that wasn’t snow,
I felt it on my face and touched it with my finger.
I looked at it very closely and no word could describe how I felt,
What had fallen on my face was an ash coming from the chimney of the crematory.
Besides touching the ash, something else disturbed me,
From the moment I stepped off the first train, there was a certain smell that filled the air.
It took me a long time to figure out what it was, but when I did,
The smell of the burning bodies didn’t seem to upset the Nazis, because they didn’t care.
The next couple weeks, it felt like I was in a daze,
Because my body and my soul were stone cold.
I would walk by the crematory or gas chambers,
And hear dozens of screams, and today their stories could never be told.
Millions of lives lost, countless tears shed,
People were herded to the gas chambers more that 100 times a day.
Looking up at the same stars as the ones from back home,
On my back with nothing to keep me warm, is where I lay.
Walking through those gates for the last time, made me even more sad than when I first got there,
It was then that I thought about all of those innocent people who were brutally killed.
The Jews were forced to dig their own graves,
Then they were shot and the trenches were filled.
Today, only few survivors are still around,
Thanks to them, we know how history was severally changed.
Lives lost, autumn leaves fallen,
And now another story has been exchanged.
Cortney H.