Children Bear Scars of Dislocation - Madhushree Chatterjee, Hindustan Times

What you don’t know can’t hurt, they say.

I disagree.

Did they know?

How awful, how hateful?

The ghettos, the camps, the chamber, the stars?

That made you feel, so different, so sad.

As if you weren’t human anymore.

The lives taken, those spared,

Will be changed forever.

Those that saw and then, saw no more,

Those that saw again and again.

Those forced to leave,

Those forced to stay,

Those forced to be somewhere in the middle

There was no way out, no escape

Only to live,


Only to die.
-
Ruth Dykstra