After listening to a survivor speak,
It was empathetic words I tried to seek,
Rubin’s story touched my soul,
And evoked emotions from deep down below.

It is known today as the Holocaust,
So many minorities whose lives were lost,
Homosexuals, Jews, the list goes on,
All of their dignity and pride was gone.
The Nazis came to power in 1933,
A huge mistake that turned out to be.
Under Hitler, things slowly began to change,
Lives were at stake and faces deranged.
Evicted from homes and moved into the slums,
Crammed together and forced to eat crumbs.
Entire families all in one room,
Nothing to look forward to, it was all doom.
Laws created to destroy and weaken them all,
No one was there to answer their call.
Forced to wear the Yellow Star,
Not even allowed to drive a car.
The Final Solution began to take place,
It was designed to create the ‘pure race.’
The young and able began to get shipped away,
Old and feeble were forced to stay.
Hundreds crammed into a tiny cattle car,
No destination could be too far.
No water or food, and maybe one break.
So many desperate lives at stake.
Destinations such as Auschwitz and Dachau,
Prisoners thought ‘What now?’
Stripped of their clothes and their jewels,
Standing naked, they felt like such fools.
Beaten, harassed, and put to work,
Nazis tormented them with a smirk.
Little water and some bread,
What all these poor souls were fed.
They were shot and gassed,
There were too many lives that passed.
Losing loved ones, and other friends,
When would we make amends?
Endless hours of grief and pain,
All for reasons completely insane.
How could one do this to another?
Killing one’s father and mother?
Unbelievable torment and shame,
Was the Nazis’ claim to fame.
People were killed, and their bodies tossed.
More than six million innocent lives lost.