Jenna Ng (10th) was recently awarded first place for her excellence in writing by the Holocaust Education Foundation of Central Virginia. This foundation was established to help students remember the past and respond creatively. Jenna’s poem titled “An Infinite Time: A List to Remember the Holocaust” presents a striking and heartbreaking look into the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. She expertly weaves together historical facts with beautiful language. We are proud of Jenna’s devoted work within the Humanities Department and look forward to reading more of her creative writing.

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An Infinite Time: A List to Remember the Holocaust

A nation, a Reich, a glorious kingdom;

A leader, a speaker, a man on a podium;

A people – the Jews – despised by this dictator,

Declared to be parasites, conspirators, traitors.

A wave sweeping, spreading, of hate, segregation;

A desire to purge and to cleanse out the nation;

And then! a proposal: a Final Solution –

A genocide, slaughter, an extermination.

Overworked, starved, and forced to comply;

Or taken and beaten, and sentenced to die;

Mother from child, and brother from brother,

These innocent humans, all wrenched from each other.

Shadowed by dread and clouded with fear;

Cast in a war that lasted six years;

Citizens killed if suspected of helping,

And Jews put to death for simply existing.

A burning, atrocity, an infinite time

Of grieving and fearing and slow weeping skies;

Of darkness and terror, this gray Holocaust;

Of souls that were stolen and lives that were lost.

An appalling six million Jewish lives taken;

A bloodstain in history that left the world shaken;

A memory, echo, of sorrow, regret,

A time we must remember

And cannot forget.

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Photo credit: Majkl Velner Unsplash