Voices of poets recall horror of the Holocaust

By Autumn Kelly

For the Daily

The fury of the Holocaust cannot come through facts and abstract numbers. Rather, it reaches us in hearing and reading about the experiences of others. As a part of the University Hillel's 21st annual Conference on the Holocaust, authors Van Brock, Myra Sklarew and Charles Fishman read from their poetry yesterday at Borders. Each brought a unique voice to the reading: Quiet, narrative and screaming.

Sklarew read from her prize-winning poem "Lithuania," a poem that shows how she has dealt with the Holocaust herself. Her poetry was narrative in style, and drew from diaries, personal interviews and her own imagination. As part of her work at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sklarew has had the opportunity to interview survivors. It was in her travels to Lithuania, where her own relatives were murdered, that she was inspired to write the poem from which she read. She also traveled to Lithuania to speak to survivors and witnesses about their experiences.

Brock and Fishman agreed with Sklarew about the importance of remembering the truth about the Holocaust. "It is important to have the utmost respect for the truth. Every few years there's a denial," Brock said.

Between reading his poems, Brock explained how exploring the Holocaust could be a dark experience. Speaking of the "survivors, killers" and ourselves he said that not everyone is able to escape it. Of course, our own escape is much less physical than that of the others, he said.

Brock's idea of escape from darkness and ascent into the light was recalled numerous times throughout the reading. Sklarew shared the story of a Polish girl who hid with her family in the sewers for two years, where they were fed by a sewer worker. At one point, the girl refused to eat; she had lost hope. The worker led her through miles of pipes to the edge of town, where light shone through a manhole. It was the dream of one day playing with other children in that light that kept her alive.

Fishman read from three poems, the longest titled "The Silence," which was based on a documentary of the Holocaust. "The Silence" was all but silent, drawing out images of babies thrown into trailers and bodies laid head to feet in ditches. Fishman's voice rose throughout the reading. "There was a time when the trees were full of screams" he read, "and the screaming burned into your mind."

On the cover of Van Brock's "Unspeakable Strangers" is a piece of art by Mauricio Lasansky from his series of "Nazi Paintings." It is a drawing/painting of a human skeleton, with its hands held up to its head. The horror of the Holocaust came through in the reading of the poetry of the Holocaust, as strongly as is possible five decades later. In answer to the question of whether the fury of the Holocaust lessens over the years, Sklarew said, "The issue is how each generation deals with the Holocaust. Each person has to come to terms with it in their own way."

These three authors have shaped the way that the current generation experiences the memory of the Holocaust. It comes through in their words, both spoken and written. The reading stood out as recalling the murder of millions of people. It also fit well into the series of presentations that make up the Conference.