Holocaust Poerty

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 reaction to this poem is I immediately feel great compassion for these children. When the Author says "Remember us, for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away." From this quote we get more of an understanding what is was like and how horrible it must of been to be harshly taken away at such a young age and it makes me think how lucky I am to expect the great privileges I have.
2. How does the author use 'we' in this poem? The Author uses 'we' to signify all the other children that went through the exact same pain. The author stresses that all these children suffered died all together rather than just a single perspective.
3. What are the verbs used in the first sentence? The verbs used in the first sentence were all of happiness played, laughed and loved.
4. What are the verbs used in the second sentence? How do they contrast with those used in the first sentence? The verbs used in the first sentence we're all and positive verbs which trigger happiness to the reader but in the second sentence they were all harsh and negative which quickly express who quickly life changed for this children.
5. What effect does the listing of 'lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers'? What is it meant to signify? The listing of professions signifies how these children that lives were destroyed were future. They were the next generation the effect this has on the reader is how these children never got the opportunity to live life and it makes  us angry and sad to understand this.
6. What simile is used in the poem and what effect does it have? The simile used "We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars" It expresses the harshness of the treatment given to these women men and children by the Nazi's
7. How has the poet represented herself in the last sentence? When the poet says "we were the children who's lives who's dreams and lives were stolen away" we get a sense of physically the poet saying to this to us as this last sentence is very powerful. I feel that this last sentence sums up the pain and she infers that she was a victim of this and we must understand how horrible it really was.
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 want to try as much as I could to help this person in any way possible I wouldn't want to discuss this person's past as it would be too painful for the victim to talk about the experiences he or she had at the Nazi concentration camp. Reacting to this poem it gives us a realization on how lucky we really are and how we must cherish all life.