(Reposted to this site 8/9/2006 )

Roundup of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto (1943)

Roundup of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto (1943)

TO THE LITTLE POLISH BOY STANDING WITH HIS ARMS UP
By: Peter L. Fischl

I would like to be an artist
So I could make a Painting of you
Little Polish Boy

Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat
Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns pointing at you

I would make a monument of you and the world who said nothing

I would like to be a composer
so I could write a concerto of you Little Polish Boy

Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat
Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns pointing at you

I would write a concerto of you and the world who said nothing

I am not an artist
But my mind had painted
a painting of you

Ten Million Miles High is the Painting
so the whole universe can see you Now
Little Polish Boy

Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat
Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns
pointing at you

And the World who said nothing

I'll make this painting so bright
that it will blind the eyes
of the world who saw nothing

Ten billion miles high will be the monument
so the whole universe can remember of you
Little Polish Boy

Standing with your Little hat
on your head
The Star of David
on your coat

Standing in the ghetto
with your arms up
as many Nazi machine guns pointing at you

And the monument will tremble so the blind world
Now
will know
What fear is in the darkness

The world
Who said nothing

I am not a composer
but I will write a composition
for five trillion trumpets
so it will blast the ear drums
of this world

The world's
Who heard nothing

I
am
Sorry
that
It was you
and
Not me

"Poem from the Archives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles, California"
©1994 Peter L. Fischl

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