A loss that cannot be fathomed
stripped branches cut down,
the others burnt—
Undressed of humanity
but these were humans,
with wives, husbands, parents and children of their own,
who killed us.
It is man who created evil.
What has made us different from others
allowed this agony—
seeds that sprouted
arriving from Zion
bringing breath to the world
we stand as an example.
We shall remember.
No one came to our aid,
yellow stars burning as the final cries for hope
echoed rippling through the lines of corpses.
The ancient desire to bear fruit
in the land of our ancestors
praying to God,
despite putting us through this endless suffering—
not a single generation spared
suffocating in the trains;
mothers, fathers, children,
intellectuals and artists,
people from all walks of life,
collapsing
naked, nameless, numbered like cattle
dying in the gas chambers
in the ovens,
soot that decent to colour the fields,
meadows filled with ashes, our memories
communities, history and tradition
erased.
We shall never forget
in our hearts, they shall live—
Daniel Pukkila