“Birdsong” – By a Child in Terezenstadt Concentration Camp

Tonight and tomorrow is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. The following poem recalls the lives of the 1.5 million children who perished:

“Who stays in his nest and doesn’t go out. / He doesn’t know what birds know best / Nor what I want to sing about, / That the world is full of loveliness. /  When dewdrops sparkle in the grass / And earth’s a flood with morning light, / A blackbird sings upon a bush / To greet the dawning after night. / Then I know how fine it is to live.

Heh, try to open up your heart / To beauty; go to the woods someday / And weave a wreath of memory there. / Then if the tears obscure your way / You’ll know how wonderful it is to be alive.”

Zichronam livrachah – May the memory of the righteous be a blessing.