Taken Away

A poem about an event that made history. Being told from the view of a teen and her little sister.

I remember the horrifying day,

like it was yesterday.

Being jewish,

And living in 1933 Germany, was the worst thing you could do.

My name is Lucy, and I will tell you about the day,

when my everything was taken from me

And seven years ago, my family and I had

struggled to find food,or even a warm piece of clothing.

Then my mother and father put my little sister and I into hiding.

Let me begin with this;

We haven’t heard anything from them in 31/2 years.

I honestly think that they are dead.

-Three years later-

My sister and I have little

to nothing at all,

but I go without so that she

at least,

has a chance.

I give the  warmest clothes that I have

to my little sister,

Sarah.

Sarah is my everything

I’d do anything to keep her safe,

She is so thin,

even though I give her most of my food,

she could be paper.

We were hiding when it happened, Sarah was in a little space

between a wall and a wardrobe.

I thought she would be safe there.

But I soon learned

that the decision I made, cost her,

her

Life.

BANG,BANG,BANG!!!! Is all I heard as the soldiers begin

to raid the house.

-(Our parents were down the street, hiding in a barn room,and we didn’t even know that they were still alive)-

My sister and I were hiding in “Aunt” Leslie’s and “Uncle” John’s house.

The soldiers came into the room in which I was hiding,

didn’t even consider looking under bed,

Seeming how from the outside,

It looked as if the bed rested on the floor.

but under the mattress was a hidden door,

that created a compartment two feet deep.

They left the room, leaving the door wide open.

I was able to see where my sister, Sarah, was hidden,

But that was a bad thing.

Sarah did not look like most Jewish girls her age,

who have round

almond eyes,

dark hair, and dark eyes.

with her

Long,

Wavy,

Blonde hair, and the most

Beautiful,

Sharp

Blue eyes,

She looks similar to a little german girl.

The only thing that set her apart was,

the roundness of her face,

and that she is short for her age of 14,

two years younger than me.

The soldiers were moving on to the next room,

-all except one.

Something had caught his eye,

as it had also caught mine.

My heart was thumping wildly against my chest,

I hoped that the soldier would hear it

Pounding, pounding, and pounding against my chest,

anything to keep him away from my Sarah.

The soldier had seen a

Wisp

of her

Golden locks,

from behind the wardrobe

He grabbed her and had her

down on her knees,

she was so strong, didn’t shed a single tear,

she looked straight ahead, not willing to give me away, showing no fear,

in her expression.

But I saw the fear,

in the way  her little fingers twitched, tied behind her back.

Then the soldier pulled out his gun and

SHOT

MY LITTLE

GIRL
IN
THE

HEAD!!!!!!!!

I was screaming,

screaming her name

Over,

and over,

and over,

and over,.........

And yet the soldiers,

did not hear or find me,

for I was screaming soundlessly

He shot Sarah,

My everything,

My little sister,

but most of all,

My LITTLE GIRL

Mom and Dad put us into hiding 6 and a half years ago.

They had  foreseen what would happen,

and for 6 and a half years,

Sarah was my little girl.

I would give her my food, I made sure she had enough sleep,

she was the reason I fought so hard.

And now, I

Have

Absolutely

Nothing.

I have nothing to LIVE for,

nothing to FIGHT for,

nothing to,

PROTECT.

My everything was taken away,

Sarah was taken from me.

And I can’t ever get her back

The soldiers left her there, she looked so cold,

the soldiers had been gone for hours now,

yet I was still in my hiding place,

frozen with

fear,

shock,

devastation.

I climbed out of my hiding spot,

Sarah, oh Sarah,

my little Sarah was gone,

her golden locks

stained with RED.

Her once bright, beautiful eyes,

Now only one remained.

For the soldier shot right above her eye,

so, nothing remained.

The one blue eye,

once beautiful,

Now cloudy.

I gently closed her eye.

I found a cloth,

went to wet it,

And began to cleanse the wound.

She looked better when the wound was not cleaned.

For there was a hole in her head,

I was able to see inside.

I cleaned her limp locks,

And did my best

to cover the gaping hole.

It was still not a pleasant sight to see.

But it looked better than it did before.

I start to clean the

ribbons of blood

on the walls,

And the beautiful, hard, maple floors.

I tried my best, but there

were still faint

ribbons,

staining the walls,

and streaking the floor.

I start to talk to her,

my mind

not accepting the fact that

Sarah

is

gone.

I try to keep her warm

Try, trying to keep the warmth

in her

lifeless body.

I repeat her name

“Sarah, Sarah, it’ll be OK,  y-you’ll be fine.

We’ll get through this together.

I’m sorry Sarah, I’m so, so sorry.

I should have given you my hiding spot,

And I hid in the attic,

I’m sorry.

I failed you.

I’m sorry.”

Aunt Leslie and Uncle John came in then suddenly,

took one look at me

holding Sarah’s

lifeless

body

in my arms,

and started to sob.

They had brought Mom and Dad,

to take Sarah and I

to a refugee camp.

They didn’t hear the gunshot,

that took Sarah’s life.

dad came over to me and told me to let her go,

Mother told me to be strong,

But she had tears,

streaking down her cheeks.

“Lucy,” Mom says, “we need to go,

And we need to go now.”

I look at the body,

in my arms.

Once a lovely little child,

now nothing but a cold corps.

I take Sarah’s locket that she always wore around her neck,

And slipped it into my pocket.

She always knew that I loved it,

she even told me once,”If anything ever happens to me Lucy, it’s yours.”

I had told her not to think like that,

But then again,

I thought the same things.

I apologize  to Aunt Leslie, telling her I did my best

to get the

ribbons of blood,

off the floor and walls.

She said it was OK.

I told Uncle John that when I was safe,

that I would write.

He said that he would miss me,

I did too.

After saying goodbye,

we hurried into a wagon of hay,

the driver willing to help us.

And we were fleeing once again,

for a place to be safe,

will be quite a ways away.

The nearest refugee camp was in Italy.

We will be safe there.

At least,

for a while.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I met Jewish men and women who survived the death camps. Their story of bravery and strength. Made me understand. People can be strong in the worst days. Your story written with a skill pen. Every emotion was understood and felt. Thank you for sharing the powerful story.
Coyote

[Lavi]

It was a little difficult to read with the font and the layout but otherwise it was an intense and powerful read.

[mattavelli]

Hello, Emo! :)
That's quite a story. People can be terrible to each other. Why did you choose this layout?

[Wonderland Asylum]

Please specify what you mean by 'layout'

[mattavelli]

The line breaks

[Wonderland Asylum]

Ok, so, when I originally wrote this poem, it was an assignment for my english class, and the only guidlines we had for it, was that we had to write the poem from the viewpoint of a refugee of our choice.
The way that I structured thee lines was simply to give the reader the best possible affect to what they were reading. I typed the poem out, then changed the line spacing, left align, right align and center align.
Out of everything that I did, I liked the double-spaced and left-align the best.
Everything else that I did, didn't have the same affect of me as well as the people that I had reading it.
I also stuck with this structure style because of the content of the poem. I believe that this structure built up the suspense and "adrenaline" in the readers.

[Rye]

I hope this isn't true, If so this is so very sad, and I am so sorry. Had a couple tears in my eyes. Must've been hard for you to write.

[Wonderland Asylum]

This isn't a personal poem, it was actually an assignment for school, we had to put ourselves in the shoes of a refugee, so I chose the Holocaust.

[Matthew Kult]

Tragically Heartbreaking

Great Read

Matthew

[Riley]

I like the structure, and it all adds up to a nice finish.