Yom Hashoah
"The Butterfly"
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone. . . .
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.
Pavel Friedman 4.6.1942
"The Jews in the ghetto, people being condemned to die, future daisy-pushers - these are the ones who are to create a chorus in the ghetto? Why? To amuse the embittered public? For whom? For the Germans?"
-Ilya Gerber, an 18 year old diarist from Lituania.
"Son of man, keep not silent, forget not deeds of tyranny. Cry out at the disaster of a people, recount it unto your children and they unto theirs. From generation to generation the hordes swept in, ran wild and savage and there was no deliverance, valiance, and revolt. How the mighty are fallen, the great in spirit and stout of heart, walking to their death with a halo of eternity."
-Yehuda Bialer
these quotes are self-explanatory, i should hope. today is the day when across the world, 6 million human beings are remembered because of the reason they were murdered, their faith and heritage. 6 million people who were given numbers and denied names as they were shot and buried and unmarked holes, shoved into gas chambers, burned to ash so they could never be found or identified again. 6 million Jews exterminated by a government devoted to hatred and evil and a world that stood by and watched. we remember today, the 27th day of the month of Nissan, every year, and we shall never forget.
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone. . . .
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.
Pavel Friedman 4.6.1942
"The Jews in the ghetto, people being condemned to die, future daisy-pushers - these are the ones who are to create a chorus in the ghetto? Why? To amuse the embittered public? For whom? For the Germans?"
-Ilya Gerber, an 18 year old diarist from Lituania.
"Son of man, keep not silent, forget not deeds of tyranny. Cry out at the disaster of a people, recount it unto your children and they unto theirs. From generation to generation the hordes swept in, ran wild and savage and there was no deliverance, valiance, and revolt. How the mighty are fallen, the great in spirit and stout of heart, walking to their death with a halo of eternity."
-Yehuda Bialer
these quotes are self-explanatory, i should hope. today is the day when across the world, 6 million human beings are remembered because of the reason they were murdered, their faith and heritage. 6 million people who were given numbers and denied names as they were shot and buried and unmarked holes, shoved into gas chambers, burned to ash so they could never be found or identified again. 6 million Jews exterminated by a government devoted to hatred and evil and a world that stood by and watched. we remember today, the 27th day of the month of Nissan, every year, and we shall never forget.