This week on Netflix, I watched the documentary entitled, "The Last Days," centered around personal interviews with 5 Hungarian survivors of The Holocaust. I was so inspired by one of the stories from the survivors, Renee Firestone, that I chose to memorialize it with a poem. May we always remember and never forget!
The Bathing Suit
The teen did anxiously await, her father to return.
Away on business once again, but soon he would be home.
He always brought the nicest gifts, and so her heart did yearn.
Would she receive a lovely dress, perhaps a fancy comb?
At last, he filled their front door frame. She bolted to his side.
“Oh Daddy please, what did you bring?” her query quickly came.
He then produced a pretty box, a velvet bow untied.
The contents of the box revealed did set her heart aflame.
Within there was a bathing suit, unlike she’d ever seen.
Its beauty was unmatchable. Its satin fabric shined,
A floral print, most beautiful, exquisite, and serene,
Attractiveness and tastefulness, together were combined.
Now when she donned this bathing suit, around the swimming pool,
The wrath of girlfriends she incurred, snide words escaped their lips.
While boys nearby were whistling, effusively they drooled.
Her beauty unmistakable, to launch a thousand ships.
In time, the beauty of her world around her did subside.
For her, the innocence of youth was gone forevermore.
As hate-filled monsters roamed her streets, subscribed to genocide,
Descended on her family, consumed by raging war.
They beat the door down of her home, where Daddy once had stood,
Demanded that she quickly grab whatever she could bring.
Where would they go, she did not know, far from their neighborhood?
This nightmare was so frightening. With tears, her eyes did sting.
So to her room, she went to pack. She spied the bathing suit,
A symbol of her life before, a time of happiness.
And hastily she put it on, to hide it from those brutes
That it might be concealed beneath her yellow star-sewn dress.
To Auschwitz, they escorted her, far from the home she knew,
Transported worse than animals, with no care or concern.
From loved ones, they divided her. Her crime? She was a Jew.
Unto the life she left behind she never would return.
They ordered her to strip her clothes, that she might take a “shower.”
The bathing suit clung to her frame. She then did hesitate.
A monster slapped her on her face, to demonstrate his power,
Revealed his inhumanity, a creature filled with hate.
How could she leave her precious suit, a symbol of all good?
It spoke to her of memories, of happy times before.
As she thought back on Daddy’s gift, she hoped he understood.
For she must now divest herself, the suit would be no more.
Then neatly she did fold her suit and placed it with her clothes.
Abandoned it upon the floor, she left her past behind,
Along with neighbors, family, friends, six million precious souls,
To forge ahead with courage strong, the suit e’er on her mind.
