A Very Personal Holocaust

Neville

A Very Personal Holocaust

 

On leaving the station all the records

suggest

She was wearing her Paisley patterned

Sunday best dress ..

Not to mention the very fine shawl

embroidered in gold

by an old aunt, with a silver bradawl ..

But let’s not pretend, that was a whole

life time ago ..

Take my word, how things change in

the blink of an eye ..

For later that day, those same records

Proposed

Miss Lonneke Cohen was to lose all she

then owned ..

Her hair and those ribbons and the gold

from her teeth ..

Plus a coat and her red leather boots

were removed by a thief

And swiftly replaced with a yellow star

shaped cotton motif ..

Not to mention that six figure tattoo ..

Yes, the one the

now, Ms. Lonneke Wahl still wears to

this day …

On her forearm, beneath the long sleeves

of her blouse

She keeps hidden away .. and as far as

is known ……………………………. She is now

the only surviving family member

Of the late Marsha and Abraham Cohen …

 

 

  • Author: Neville (Offline Offline)
  • Published: August 22nd, 2021 09:31
  • Comment from author about the poem: its not all pretty out here folks ... but some things just need to be said and others, should never be forgot ...... N x
  • Category: Unclassified
  • Views: 68
  • Users favorite of this poem: Fay Slimm., HannahElisabeth, L. B. Mek
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Comments +

Comments6

  • orchidee

    A fine write N.

    • Neville



      Cheers Mr. O ........................ N

    • Fay Slimm.

      Personal indeed this lament at grossly cruel inhumanity suffered by numberless families not too long ago -- penned with compassion and graphic honesty your account of Miss Cohen's great loss needs to be widely read and remembered -- into my list to make sure I do not forget..... thank you my caring friend.........x

      • Neville



        Ah' I knew I could count on you my Lady Fay .. thank you so very muchly and truly tooly .... x

      • dusk arising

        When we hear figures like six million (forgive my ignorance for innacuracy) it just passes by within a second as a part of a sentence which might have a meaning to the listener, it might be a figure heard many times before assosciated with holocaust..... another word which slips by in a second in a sentence....
        We know how rich and rewarding our lives are, how precious is our life even if we are homeless beggars around the late night cashpoint, beggars with a life story to tell, and a warm beating heart.
        So was every single one of the millions. Every single one. Possessing, hopes, plans, ambitions, sucesses and disappointment. Possessing life in all it's colour.

        • Neville



          ............ Understatedly true sir .. thank you for adding your words, indeed those words to this page N

        • Doggerel Dave

          Much hard graft went into that, Nev – and more worthy grounds would be hard to find than that alluded to above, that figures like six (twelve?) million slip by, when your piece brings home the loss, personally to every one of them..
          But further, for me, one other moral argument for the insistence that this Holocaust can never be forgotten is summarized in the line “Take my word, how things change in the blink of an eye ..” – I will always be mindful that change could occur today , tomorrow, any time.....and evidence since has already proven that it can and has. Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia.......................................................................................

          • Neville



            You are absolutely right of course Dave .. thank you. Neville

          • Lorna

            Took me totally by surprise as it went along - just as I suppose it was meant to - how life can change in an instant to something so bad.... those were truly awful times.

            • Neville



              they were indeed .. thank you Lorna ..

            • L. B. Mek

              it took years for the Nazi's
              to warp minds and conquer
              their own country, the rest
              they achieved - in a matter of days...
              A heart wrenching read, like how you treated
              such a painful subject with so much respect
              (this is you
              at your subtle and measured best
              in my humble opinion)
              thanks for sharing, my friend

              • Neville


                .... it took years for the Nazi's to warp minds and conquer their own country, the rest they achieved - in a matter of days...

                How incredibly and awfully true your words above are sir .. and I am honoured that you posted them on this particular page .................... Neville

                • Doggerel Dave

                  But it wasn’t only, was it Neville? If we are going there, an analysis of how and why the Nazis attained the position which allowed them to implement what came to be referred to as the holocaust is essential. Otherwise this is meaningless and has the underlying suggestion that the Nazis were somehow a special case, had special skills….

                  • Neville



                    they were skilled manipulators & opportunists who had the machinery to take advantage of all that their sick minds perceived to be a threat of one kind or another, to their warped ideal .. the fuel they predominantly used was that of fear ..

                    • Doggerel Dave

                      That has to be true. The only point I’m making is that to frame them like that gets us nowhere, that a focus on the historical conditions which got them there is much more fruitful, otherwise it is too easy to see them as some kind of special case with aberrant proclivities, a special breed.

                      • L. B. Mek

                        those with warped mind's and agendas
                        read what they want to read,
                        see what they want to see,
                        and end-up, fooling themselves
                        all the way to their sans
                        of a pathetic existence...

                        • Doggerel Dave

                          Mek, I’ve been addressing Neville with respect to this issue on his thread attached to his post.

                          I have absolutely no desire to exchange with you – even if I understood half of what you are on about.

                          As for the other half, you are a hypocritical piece of garbage, my friend. (there, of itself, is a piece of hypocritical rubbish, which given you are so adept at producing, I hope you will understand).
                          .



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