Poetry Research

In the past, human nature has deprived humans of reaching their goal of equality. Human nature makes people prejudice and tend to judge people as something that they are not. One example is the inhumane treatment of the Jews, especially during the Holocaust. Between 1939 and 1945, nearly six million Jews were killed (McCarthy). During this period of time and even after, many adults and children wrote books and poetry about the sufferings they witnessed and endured as they forced to undergo horrific conditions. One poem written about this horrendous time period is “Remembrance” by Tawnysha Lynch. This poem was written after an obviously heartbreaking visit to the remains of the deserted Auschwitz. In her poem, Lynch expresses her thoughts as she witnessed the setting where millions of people were killed for being Jewish, homosexual, and even handicapped (Soudakoff).

After coming into power in 1933, Adolf Hitler began trying to solve the “Jewish problem” (Ross). The execution of Jews was to be Hitler’s “final solution” (Ross). In order to accomplish his goal of the perfect race, concentration camps were established. An estimated 15,000 camps were used in the countries occupied by the Nazis. Many of the camps were destroyed by the Nazis themselves after two or three months of activity (Ferree). The majority of the victims of the Holocaust were killed in Auschwitz. Established in 1940 by the Nazis, no official records were kept of how many people were executed. If there were documents, they were destroyed before being found. According to inscriptions on the walls of Auschwitz, four million people died in Auschwitz and its over 40 sub-camps ( ). However, the number of people is now more believed to be 1.1 and 1.5 million people ( ). This recognizes the fact that the people held captive in concentration camps were not even considered as humans but rather as an inconvenience and an imperfection in the human race.

Life in concentration camps was very brutal. When people arrived at Auschwitz, the first selection was made. There, “approximately 25 percent were then and there determined to be ‘fit for work’ and allowed to live a bit longer” (Soudakoff). Others were sent to their immediate deaths in gas chambers. Those allowed to survive spent many long days and nights struggling to survive. With limited food and unhealthy facilities provided, many of the prisoners died from disregard. However, those able to endure the harsh living conditions were still at jeopardy to be killed considering the fact that many of “the non-Jews were mostly starved, poisoned or lined up against the infamous Death Wall and shot. The Jews were herded into the gas chambers” (Soudakoff). After the camp’s liberation on January 27, 1945, many of the people in the camp continued to die; because they had been in such poor health for so long, even the finest care from Russian doctors could not save them.

In “Remembrance”, Tawnysha Lynch writes from the point of view of a survivor revisiting the desolate building of Auschwitz. She comments on the people she might have seen based on what she saw visiting the camp. Supported by pictures, the speaker discusses the living conditions of the thousands of people in Auschwitz. The starving prisoners are illustrated as being “living skeletons” (4). In the abandoned concentration camp, the speaker expresses the sound of silence. However, the sounds of “the cries of (her) people” and “beating of a whip” are brought back to life at some point in the speaker’s visit (6,8). The speaker also talks about