Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue

The Shadow of the Holocaust

Why me?
A life of opportunity
To work
To love
In freedom

Born in the shadow of the Holocaust
I heard the hushed voices of my family
As I played behind the worn leather sofa
I knew they were speaking of bad things

A whisper …. a sob….a sigh…. a Yiddish curse

Later I was told
But I did not really understand.
Much later I met a friend whose father
Had escaped the Warsaw Ghetto
He told us…and then I knew.

Why me?
A life of relative peace
To mother
To sleep at night
To live

Recently, for the first time, I travelled through Germany
On a train
A warm train
Comfortable seats
Flushing toilet
Buffet car

And we stopped at Freiburg,
Baden-Baden, Mannheim, Cologne
I looked out at these modern cities full of innocent people
On their daily business

But I knew what had happened here
In the darkness before I was born
train moved on through the snow

I heard the cries from the stifling cattle trucks
The wheels going to horror
Not Brussels…and home.

And in my head a voice I vaguely knew
Called to me from the ashes and said
“Be careful – this child born in the shadow of the Holocaust”

For, why not me?

Why not you?

ROS ELLIS c 2010