Memories of Neisse (for Hanna)
Traditional Seder plate
Looking back, it began slowly.
Happy memories of sacred Friday rituals
Mama lighting the Shabbat candle
Everyone singing songs in Hebrew
Relatives visiting on significant holidays
Passover in Neisse, their little town
Up and down streets, the strings of
small shops owned by proud families
Wandering Jews who’d settled so long
they felt like indigenous Germans
Then, change in the air, a foul stench
as demons plotted in biergartens
with one who had a Master Plan
First is was spittle on Father’s shoes
as they walked to temple
Elaboration: Book burning
Brecht, Freud, Dos Passos, Proust
Einstein, Kafka, Joyce, Helen Keller
Genius flashes turned to ashes
Artwork was destroyed, replaced by
white marble gods and goddesses:
The. Ideal. German. Is. Not. A. Jew.
Young Hanna was told to leave school
and never come back. She glanced
over her shoulder fighting back
bitter, Jewish, no-longer-real-German tears
as a swastika flag was affixed above
the entrance to her (no-longer-her) school
Their summit was yet to be reached
The nadir of Hanna’s life as they
boarded the train for…
© 2012 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
For The Sunday Whirl: Goddess, String, Elaborated, Flags, Sacred, Visit, Demons, Summit, Rituals, Significant, Intentions, Indigenous. Also for dverse Open Link Night.
Dedicated to Riley’s Oma (“grandma” in German), Hanna Weinberger, who escaped Auschwitz two weeks before the Liberation, emigrated to America, married, and had two sons. Also dedicated to the man she married, Leonard Weinberger, and their sons, Rob and Roy.
Sharp Little Pencil 
El Guapo
Strong emotional piece. It moved me a lot. Some of my parents families got out in time. An awful lot didn’t.
Sharp Little Pencil
Guapo, I hear you. One of her sisters was shot trying to escape; the other survived but abandoned her Jewish heritage, marrying an Anglican and raising the kids in the church… all sorts of ways to lose people… Amy
markwindham
well done, a fitting tribute. May we never forget…
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Mark. And may we see it coming, because it will come again. Hitler’s blueprint was taken from the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915 and the years before, but 1915 is the end date on SO MANY Armenian family trees… Amy
Sarav
Hi Amy, what a wonderful flowing poignant poem.
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks so much, Sara. Peace, Amy
brian miller
stirring write…esp in light of my visit earlier this year to the holocaust museum and knowing what will be coming in the after…and thinking of those that survived and those that did not…
Sharp Little Pencil
I’ve been girding my loins, seeing if I have the courage to tour it. Being so close to Hanna, it’s hard to imagine entering the room of shoes… thanks, Brian. Peace, and may we remain vigilant to the fascism that looms even now. Amy
zongrik
wow, that’s heavy. you really tell this story as if you were there, as if you understand first hand. amazing insight.
radiation rampage
Sharp Little Pencil
Z, must tell you, these were mostly first-hand accounts from the real Hanna Stern Weinberger. I sat for hours, transfixed, because we Barlow girls were raised with knowledge of the Holocaust – our mom, a social justice advocate, insisted we recognize fascism when it rears its ugly head. Thanks, and peace, Amy
Daydreamertoo
Such sad, bad, evil times. Hanna’s story is one of determination to survive against all odds. Thankfully she did. We think these things can never and, will never happen again and yet, nothing much has changed. Different dictators in different countries but, the same killing and bigoted beliefs.
Powerful write Amy.
Sharp Little Pencil
You nailed this one, hon. It’s all around us. Rwanda, where Europeans made up the concept of Hutus and Tutsis, then pitted them against each other, declaring the Hutus to be “morally and ethnically superior.” Here, it’s even questioning the heritage of our president, because he’s biracial. In South Africa of old, he couldn’t have gotten a job painting houses. Thank God he is American. Amy
Debbie
Powerful Amy. So glad that you can keep the memories alive!
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Debbie. Hanna recorded her account for Spielberg’s Shoah Project before she died. And thank God he put his resources behind collecting stories. Amy
Diane Turner
Stunning as it is heart-rending. Lest we never forget.
Sharp Little Pencil
Amen, Diane, and thanks… Amy
Richard King Perkins II
This is a very good poem.
Sharp Little Pencil
Thank you, Richard, and thanks for visiting me. Amy
henryclemmons
Ouch. Such a passioned presentation and heart pricking theme. You possess much skill. I am greatly awed. Excellente!!!!!!!!!
Sharp Little Pencil
Henry, my mother-in-law was a strong, awesome woman, and I don’t say that about many people… her courage was in her bones, I think, and her story is one that needs to NEVER happen again. But one must be able to recognize fascism and racist where it exists… especially here in America. Amy
vivinfrance
Like, which I checked, seems a bizarre word for this poem, but it signifies my appreciation of your beautifully-written reminder of that unspeakable period for your family and for so many families lost for ever.
Sharp Little Pencil
VIv, this serves as a mirror to your stories of WWII as well, your childhood and the Blitz… it’s all in the same mix. Here in America, we have so many kinds of prejudice and racism… but people don’t want to think about it. I speak out. That’s one reason I’m not popular in my family… but Mom would be proud, I know. Bless you! Amy
kaykuala
We hear of the horrors and others speak of their sufferings. We never know of the sufferings of those who didn’t make it. It’s awful of what man can do to man. We tell ourselves we hope such things would not happen again.But it does! It’s sad!
Happy for Hanna. She is blessed! She had no ill-will of others. Her escape was made easy. Great write, Amy!
Hank
Sharp Little Pencil
Hank, thanks so much for this warm reply. Do you know, when the American flag was at last flown over Auschwitz, and her little group sent a spy to ensure this was not a Nazi ruse to lure them back, Hanna, five-foot-zero and 15 years old, marched up to an American soldier and said in German, “I would like to speak to whomever is in charge.” What a gutsy girl and strong woman in her later years. She died two years ago, in her American husband’s arms. Amy
Steve E
Amy, you make this ALL TOO REAL!
…and, it WAS ALL TOO REAL!
How many stood by, did nothing to help. Fear stood in every shadow. Yet the Peeps did N O T H I N G !!
What is the matter with us today? Do we not SEE??? Over and over and over, history whips around like a hurricane, whips us in the ass. Little by little we lose out freedoms. Maybe God thinks we are not smart Stewards of our cash, our belief structure, our freedom.
Shut UP steve, time to move away–getting shot iin the ass is better than being shot in the chest, neck, or head!
And Oh YEAH! LOVE and PEACE! (That somehow sounds funny in this spot right now?–grin!)
Sharp Little Pencil
Steve, the scar left by Hanna’s tattoo removal made it horrifyingly real to me as well. She had nightmares until the day she died that the SS was at her door. She slept in a locked bedroom… and died in her loving husband’s arms. My mother raised us to NEVER ignore prejudice, whether is was racism, the little guy getting picked on, immigrants, religious bias, sexism… but the Holocaust she burned into our brains, telling us that fascism must never take root in America. Guess what? It has, in the form of the Tea Party. Sorry, Teabaggers, but the Koch Bros. are running you ’round in circles and you don’t even know it. The cockroaches have come out to play, and the NRA makes sure the militias do not want for guns. But that’s just me…
God, are we a pair or WHAT??!! It’s like, “Don’t get Steve and/or Amy started; we’ll be here all night!” Peace to you, buddy. Amy
julespaige
And yet there are still some who proclaim the Holocaust never happen. But then these, some are the same voices that say Man never landed on the moon. I am happy for Hanna and her family -thank you for sharing this memory.
I went in a different direction…
http://julesgemsandstuff.blogspot.com/2012/05/matter-of-interpretation-sw-wordle-56.html
Sharp Little Pencil
Jules, yes, I am happy Hanna survived and lived to see her sons settled (Rob remarried happily after we were divorced). We must always remain vigilant. Peace, and thanks, Amy
Dick Jones
A difficult subject tackled movingly, Amy .Powerful and evocative.
Sharp Little Pencil
Dick, so glad you came by, and thanks so much for this comment. Much appreciated. PEace, Amy
purplepeninportland
Oh amy, what a tribute. I knew people in my childhood who were tattooed and one couple who married after they each had lost their respective families.
Sharp Little Pencil
Tattooing was a double insult and curse upon Jews, because if a Jew has a tattoo, they cannot be buried in consecrated ground, at least Orthodox Jews still follow this tradition. So Hitler was doubly cruel with this. So glad you knew witnesses and that some found happiness together… the shared experience… Amy
Lindy Lee
“As they boarded the train for…”;
thoughts in this mind, make this one die a thousand times
at the thought of those long, long lines. You’re the master of the last line zinger…
Sharp Little Pencil
Bless you, Lindy. Wanted to keep it hanging, as they thought they were going to work camps, and most were gassed. In Hanna’s case, it was Auschwitz, where her sister died trying to escape… her mom and dad had both died of natural causes, so she was living with an aunt. She always said she was glad her parents were spared not only the indignity, but the probability that old folks would have gone to the chambers… how sad is that? Amy