Holocaust Poetry

Read the poem and answer the question below. Include both the questions and the poem in your blog post.

Holocaust
by Barbara Sonek

We played, we laughed
we were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. We had dreams, then we had no hope. We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind can not happen again. Remember us, for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away.

1. What is your initial reaction to this poem?
2. How does the author use 'we' in this poem?
3. What are the verbs used in the first sentence?
4. What are the verbs used in the second sentence? How do they contrast with those used in the first sentence?
5. What effect does the listing of 'lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers'? What is it meant to signify?
6. What simile is used in the poem and what effect does it have?
7. How has the poet represented herself in the last sentence?
8. If you could communicate to this person, a victim of the Holocaust, what would you want to say? What do you feel that you must do in your life as a response to this poem?