Marked
Holocaust
Survivor
Marked, by Stephen Herz
(For Anita Schorr)
at nine
you wore the yellow star,
the Star of David
that marked you Jew,
marked you for the cattle car,
marked you Terezin, for Bergen-Belsen,
marked you for Auschwitz
where you lost your name
for a number--
71569
will the tall chimney roar?
will it belch its stench red and black?
ill you go to the showers
that aren't showers?
will you stand without falling
through the long appels?
will you avoid the dogs, the Kapo's blows?
will they take your number
at the next selection?
a girl of fourteen
you say you're eighteen
like your mother tells you,
hiding your undeveloped body,
slipping out of Mengele's hand,
out of Auschwitz
into Hamburg slave labor,
a red stripe down your back,
the errant bomb burying you,
the German soldier
pulling you out, befriending you,
giving you half his sandwich
every day
until the day the cattle car dumps you
into Bergen-Belsen,
into the living dead, the walking dead:
and the flesh of the dead
some are eating
before the British are coming,
and you tell yourself:
I'm going to make it!
willing yourself to survive,
to bear witness
for all of those who lost their names
who lost their lives
simply because
they were marked
like you:
Jew
Holocaust
Survivor
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