Holocuast

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? My initial feeling when reading this poem is a feeling of immense sadness and a immense disgust in what the Germans did to these poor innocent children.
2. How does the author use 'we' in this poem? The use of "we" in this poem makes it more personal as it make it feel like you did this to her not just the the children but actually to this person (collective pronoun) it is also using repetition 
3. What are the verbs used in the first sentence?  laughed and played loved 
4. What are the verbs used in the second sentence? Hot is do they contrast with those used in the first sentence?  the words are ripped thrown these are negitive words that are the exact opposite of loved and laughed. one is with neutering and the other is getting rid.
5. What effect does the listing of 'lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers'? What is it meant to signify? these jobs are respectable law abididing jobs that could of had a massive positive effect on the whole of mankind. that you are tearing people loved ones away from humanity. It also helps it to relate to the reader.
6. What simile is used in the poem and what effect does it have? Like Cattle in cars the effect is that they were herded to the slaughter (alliteration) 
7. How has the poet represented herself in the last sentence? she represents herself as one of these children that had this terrible harm brought upon them at such a young age (direct speech)
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? I would say sorry for everything that has happened what they did and that no one not even the people that did this to you deserve this. Dont give up on your dreams as we are gifted enough to be able to reach them