Beckett Kavanagh, Class of 2025

Several buildings flattened no longer troubled me,

the camp looked like an abandoned ship Fear was greater than hunger,

We breathed in air with fire and smoke,

You will pay for this later he will seek revenge,

Bite your lips little brother His eyes were shining with greed empty and dead Germany has no need for sick Jews,

Germany has no need for me. No water, no blankets, less soup and bread.

Were they really going to allow the Jews to hear the clock strike twelve?

Deep inside of me I felt a great void opening, I no longer accepted God’s silence.

As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into the symbol of rebellion,

of protest against him.

I listened as the inmates voice rose: It was powerful yet- broken- amid the weeping,

the sobbing and the sighting of the entire “congregation”. He was speaking rapidly,

He wanted to tell me so many things. Thousands of lips repeated the benediction,

Bent over like trees in a storm. But as soon as he felt chinks in his faith, he lost all incentive to fight,

And opened the door to death. The Jewish year was almost over.

The night was pitch black We had the feeling of being alive. Don’t think, don’t stop run!

To no longer feel anything neither fatigue nor cold nothing, near me there were men collapsing in the snow,

I’ll fall……..A small red flame…A shot Death enveloped me,

it suffocated me All I had to do was close my eyes to see a whole world pass before me to dream of another life.

We had transcended everything -death, fatigue, our natural needs.

We were stronger than cold and hunger, A silent death, suffocation. No way to scream, no way to call for help.