Murder of Children
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Repost from March 8 2024 By an unfinished life, I refer to the 1.5 million children whose lives were cruelly cut short by the horrors of the Holocaust For several years I have been trying to finish a song to remember all those children, but for some reason, I cannot finish it. Every time, I…
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The title of this blog is a line from a song by the hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. I chose it because it speaks a simple truth—a child does not know how to be evil. The boy in the picture above is Samuel Siegfried Opdenberg. He was born on February 7, 1940,…
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In memory of the 1.5 million children murdered during the Holocaust 1.5 million tears, silent and small,Each one is a child, with dreams to recall.Eyes once bright with wonder and play,Dimmed by the darkness that stole them away. Tiny shoes, now empty and still,Echo in halls where whispers chill.Toys abandoned, songs unsung,A generation silenced, so…
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(For Gretha Frank, born in Amsterdam on December 4, 1939– murdered at Sobibor on July 16, 1943) Born beneath the Dutch grey skies,A baby’s laugh, a child’s bright eyes.Winter’s chill could not confine,The warmth of life, a spark divine. Amsterdam streets cradled her feet,A city’s hum, her heartbeat’s beat.Innocence spun in golden threads,Dreams that danced…
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I will never forget the moment my wife told me we were expecting our first child. It was pure magic. Bringing new life into the world is a sacred, joyful moment that every expecting parent should be able to cherish—free from fear, focused only on the health and future of their baby. My thoughts drift…
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In the dark of history’s cruel abyss,A child’s innocence—lost in the mist.Amidst the horror, the anguish, the pain,A young soul’s light, forever slain. In shadowed corners, where terror thrived,A child’s laughter, once so alive.But silenced now, by tyranny’s hand,In a world where humanity couldn’t stand. No tender embrace, no gentle care,Just the echoes of sorrow,…
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When I write an unfinished life, I mean it as the life of the 1.5 million children who were murdered during the Holocaust. For several years I have been trying to finish a song to remember all those children, but for some reason, I cannot finish it. Every time, I sit down to visualize the…
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This is Rachel Soesan—her face is filled with so much life and joy, and why wouldn’t it be when she was 4. Her whole life lay before her. Yet there were some who perceived her as a threat to society. She was born on December 20, 1938 in Amsterdam. She would have been 85 today.…
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Nelly Vega was a Dutch from Amsterdam minding her own business. She was a little girl doing her homework in front of a painting with some cows, a bridge and a field. A little Dutch girl. Little did she know she would become an enemy of the state. There were men, and perhaps women, who…
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Caroline Stella Os was born in Rotterdam on 8 October 1940. Her life ended when she was murdered at Westerbork, by the Nazis, on 8 June 1943. She reached the tender age of two years old. How can I write about a girl who only lived for 32 months? What can I write about a…
History of Sorts 