The scalding sun hung
above the camp, cool
against the heat of genocide.
Auschwitz ignited with Himmler's orders.
July 24th recorded the high point:
46,000 Jews incinerated.

Smoke, mingled with fire,
escaped through chimneys
to Prussian blue skies.
By the fall, women working
at the Union Munitions Plant
smuggled in enough schwartzpulver
to transform sardine tins into bombs.

Some women were hanged
for hiding explosives
in the hems of their dresses, a risk
they took to put off death.
Sonderkommandos, forced to feed
the ovens their dead, sabotaged
the partisan’s plan as they blew up
Crematorium IV.

Word escaped, Rosa
was one of the Jews to blame.
Thrown in a dark cell, tortured,
she never thought of betrayal.
At 23, Rosa stood on the gallows,
looked over the hopeless crowd
as her last message was sent
underground, "Be Strong and Brave."

RETURN

One By One

L'Dor V'Dor

Deaths Elsewhere

The Acquistion