Fear
Today the ghetto knows a different fear,
Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe.
An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake,
The victims of its shadow weep and writhe.
Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright
And mothers bend their heads into their hands.
Now children choke and die with typhus here,
A bitter tax is taken from their bands.
My heart still beats inside my breast While friends depart for other worlds.
Perhaps it's better - who can say? - Than watching this, to die today?
No, no, my God, we want to live! Not watch our numbers melt away.
We want to have a better world, We want to work - we must not die!
Eva Picková, 12 years old, Nymburk
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The poem is preserved in a copy turned over to the State Jewish Museum in Prague by Dr. R. Feder in 1955. It is signed at the bottom, "12 year old Eva Picková from Nymburk".
Eva Picková was born in Nymburk on May 15, 1929, deported to Terezín* on April 16, 1942, and perished in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) on December 18, 1943.
*Terezín was a Nazi concentration camp.
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Poetry of the Holocaust
PoetryI'm quite interested in the holocaust and the poetry of its time period, so I decided to make a collation of poems for all of you to read. A short history is included at the end of each poem. Enjoy!!:)
