Poetry of the Holocaust

Poetry of the holocaust; written in pencil in the sealed freightcar

Written in Pencil in the Sealed Freightcar

Here in this carload

I am Eve

With my son Abel

If you see my older boy

Cain son of Adam

Tell him that I...

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Dan Pagis was Hebrew writer, born in Bukovina in 1930. His early years were spent in a concentration camp in the Ukraine from where he escaped. He settled in Israel in 1946 and taught medieval Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He became one of the most vibrant voices in modern Israeli poetry. His references to the Holocaust are sometimes oblique and filtered through his use of biblical or mystical images. He died in 1986.