N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 1997

P o e t r y

Our Past and Our Future

The deaf and hard of hearing students at the Cleary School for the Deaf Program in East Islip High, New York, used poetry to explore their feelings about what they learned in their global studies class under teacher Sherri Juhas. Here are their poems about the Holocaust.

The Holocaust
Four Poems

Pouring Rain
by Shannon Winter

A young Jewish boy
Playing outside with his friends....
He goes home and eats with his family.
He goes to temple to worship and pray.
He goes to school every day.

All of a sudden,
The young boy is crying...
Nazis separate his family!
Last time they see each other.
Stuck in a dark place.

The room filled with black color.
The young boy is stuck,
Like an animal in a cage.
Can't come out.
Work, work all day long.

Ugly black and gray clouds
Filled with human snow...
Lives turned to ash.
The innocent boy desires his family
Back together.

Pouring rain is made of tears.

    by Shannon Winter

---


Jewish Guy

My grandma lives on a huge farm
Long ago she worked
With a Jew

They became friends
They got along well
But...
  The Gestapo came
  Inspecting passbooks
  Her friend without one
  Was shot and killed by
    Gestapo
Grandma was in shock
Her friend's blood
Watered the land
Where her farm still stands.

  She will never forget
  That time long ago
  When she was a good friend
  At the wrong time
    With a Jew

    by Anna Maria Galvan

---


My Home Land

My home land is not my own.
Oh! my home land.

My name is shame. But we are not to blame.
Oh! my home land.

To be Jewish or Black. What's wrong with that?
Oh! my home land.

Always in my mind's eye.
I remember...
My homeland

    by Charlie Torregrossa

---


Remember: The Jewish Children

Do not forget
the faces of the Jewish children
their short lives
spent in the darkness
OK God's kingdom.
But...who lives and saw what happened

They were so frightened and alone.
When the soldiers came with their guns.
To end the lives
    of the Jewish children

Do not forget their faces
    their pain
    their fear
As the Nazis came
Did they hear cries "Help me! Help me!"
Did they hear the pain
    of the Jewish children?

What world is this?
    God? Were you there?
Did you hear their cries?

Do not forget the small faces
of the Jewish children

I remember
I have seen their graves.
In heaven, they smile,
laugh, play,
and do.
All those things they could not
here on Earth


Never forget the Jewish children.


    by Olorunseyi Akanmu

Excerpts published in September/October Perspectives in Education and Deafness.

General comments may be sent to: ISCS.ClercCenter@gallaudet.edu
Last modified April 22, 1998
Copyright © 1997, All Rights Reserved
Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center

Gallaudet University 800 Florida Ave. NE Washington, DC 20002-3695