As I’ve said before: a picture tells a thousand words, but never the full story. That’s one of the reasons I choose to limit the use of graphic images. Words can leave a deeper impact—they require time, attention, and reflection. A picture allows you to quickly decide whether or not to engage, but a story or poem invites you to stay until the end.
Below are poems written by young people who were imprisoned in the Łódź Ghetto. None of them survived, but their words endure. Their voices, preserved in verse, continue to speak to us with haunting clarity and timeless truth.
A Dream / Avraham Koplowicz
When I grow up and reach the age of 20,
I’ll set out to see the enchanting world
I’ll take a seat in a bird with a motor.
I’ll rise and soar into space
I’ll fly, sail, hover,
Over the lovely faraway world,
I’ll soar over rivers and oceans
Skyward shall I ascend and blossom,
A cloud my sister, the wind my brother.
Avraham was born in 1930. During his time in the Łódź Ghetto, he worked in a shoemaker’s workshop. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with his mother and father. There, at just fourteen years old, Avraham was murdered.
he Cheerful Pessimists/Avraham Cytryn
Dear friends! To hell with sorrow
What does it have to do with youth?
Pessimism is worthless.
Dear friends! Not every day can we laugh.
Off with you, sorrow. Long live joy!
Leap, turn, move!
Throw your pains and bad habits into the
rubbish heap.
We are cheerful pessimists,
Youthful, as light as the wind.
Hurrah to youth, long live joy, and to hell with
All the rest!
Life is fleeting and filled with dangers.
So let us remain united forever.
He who has drained the cup of misery
Will be plagued by fear all his life.
Let joy intoxicate us into forgetfulness
Let us forget our suffering and troubles
Off with you sorrow that stymies our hearts.
Avraham Cytryn was born in 1927 in Łódź. He endured the suffering of the Łódź Ghetto from the age of fourteen to seventeen. In November 1942, his father died of starvation in their apartment at just forty-two years old.
Later, Avraham, his mother, and his sister Lucy were deported on one of the final transports to Auschwitz. Avraham was murdered in the gas chambers three days after arrival. His mother also perished. Only Lucy survived.
After liberation, she returned to their apartment in Łódź and found all of Avraham’s notebooks filled with his writings—except the one he had taken with him on the transport.
The Beggar/Avremek
Sad and hunched over, spent and bent over
He walked the streets (dressed) in his rags
The beggar.
Forgotten by all, at the crossroads of penury
He stopped in his tracks, mumbling from memory
My poor broken family
And I seeking a life-saver
As one gasping in a sinking ship
Just like a homeless wanders the streets
A stranger to all those around him
He lives the life of a nomad.
Back at home the children are crying
Clinging in close to their mother
Yet she is constantly weeping with longing
For her husband out wandering the streets.
Here in the sprawling city
With buildings and apartments
[…]
He opens a door, behold
People eating a breakfast repast
On the table some butter
Together with things from the baker
“Would you spare me a sliver
to enlighten my soul?”
Engaging him now with an ominous glance
Tapping his leg in very evident anger
The man shouted, ”Get out”
Slamming the door in his face.
The beggar retreated, hungry and thirsty
Seeking respite from the wind.
All around him a storm boding the onset of autumn
As his soul he commended to god.
Through a strange gate he will enter
Falling asleep in the shelter.
Avremek’s poem also reflects the profound tragedy of disintegrating family life. He lived with his mother and father throughout the four harrowing years in the Łódź Ghetto, until all three were deported together on the final transport to Auschwitz in September 1944. Yet during those years, the young boy must have witnessed countless families torn apart in every imaginable way. The final three lines of the first stanza powerfully capture this heartbreaking reality.
sources
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://echoesandreflections.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/EchoesAndReflections_Lesson_Four_Poem-PoemByAvrahamKoplowicz.pdf
https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/two-teenage-poets-in-the-lodz-ghetto.html
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