Survival



How long must I remember?
How soon can I forget?
How long must I hate?
It may be, as some say,
That "God is dead"
but
The holocaust is not dead!
The six million are not dead!
They live on
In my ambivalence
In my civilized paranoia
My forced good manners
My obsessive thinking-

"What is this German sitting beside me thinking?
What is he thinking I 'm thinking?
Is the association - Jew-German-gas chamber
As inevitable
As unseparable
For him as for me?
This German wasn't even born then!
Why stigmatize him, "Nazify" him?
Does he feel the guilt of his fathers
Upon himself?
As I feel the yellow star
Upon myself?
How can I let remembrance die?
Silently shouting from the recesses of their
Hard barrack boards
Silently shouting in the recesses of my own heart
"Remember!"


Can Germans ever free themselves
From their perverted past?
Can I ever free myself
From their persistent presence -
Six million!
Their bones interred with mine,
Giving life to life,
The elixir for survival.

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Learn more about the author Grace Hollander

This material is ©1998 by Grace Hollander
3 Keren Haysod st,Ramat Ilan, Givat Shmuel, Israel 51905

Permission to distribute this material, with this notice is granted - with request to notify of use by surface mail
or at gracehollander@usa.net.