A post by ASimpleJew, showing cobblestones from the Warsaw Ghetto, motivated me to revise some old poems-one of which I feature here that I wrote about the desecration of the Skokie, Il. Holocaust memorial one day after it was unveiled some twenty or so years ago.

I dedicate these words to Ben Z"L who years ago loved dispatching cyber nazis on the Play Station 2 game ...
Wolfenstein.

*Kiddush Ha Shem ... courageously they went
**kedoshim whose strength, was ... heavensent.
"Never Again" we were reminded once and for all.
Hear our voices that day when we call.
Hatred's reminder, its venom's insatiable aim,
to weigh upon humanity’s complicity, its guilt and shame.
Atop the engraved mount, in bronze there only remain
remnants of the countless so savagely slain:
a mother in whose arms death lies still
an old Jew and boy's hearts terror does fill;
a partisan fighter whose gestures ignite
but one spark of the hope which flickered by night .
Amidst the rubble of days … what once had been
through out the ages a beacon for men ...
the Torah commanding us: "Thou Shalt Not Kill",
though abandoned in ruins, so applicable still
to our lives which came after so relatively free
of terror's ability to blind us who see.
Now tearful, silently stoic first gaze
while vigilance slept, its fires not ablaze ...
Nary a night did pass ere the evil befell,
and reminded, we were all, of heaven and hell.
Now gone were the tears that had welcomed its sight,
but ready were the many to stand and fight
an ugly reminder whose obscenities told
of times long ago and graves since cold.
Aroused and awakened this community alert,
whose monument remained defiled to see
that history was not over …
as they had hoped it might be.
A garden became this memorial soon,
and erased were the lies ...
that had blackened the truth
Dignity Restored its shiny gloss ...
all its words read of six million's loss.
Still erect it stands there with neither doubt nor shame,
as history's reminder to memories so lame ...
that even those departed must struggle to hone
the spade that will dig out this spot as their own.

*Kiddush Ha Shem ... Sanctification of the Name (of God)
**Kedoshim ... Holy Martyrs