#8- Survivors of Mass Death

One week till Yom Ha'shaoh folks!

I wasn't going to write another Holocaust-related post, but this poem had too many parallels to the book Slaughter House Five to be ignored. Aside from referring to himself as a pilgrim, the author makes reference to the cellar in which he was hidden (Billy survived by being locked away in the cellar of a slaugherhouse) 'Time in its gyre' spinning back down the flue faster than nightmares (Billy time-travels  back to some pretty hellish times) and the reference to slippers in the yard in the snow reminded me of Billy dressed in his toga and silver boots.

1980

And when I go up as a pilgrim in winter, to recover the place I was born, and the twin to self I am in my mind, then I'll go in black snow as a pilgrim to find the grave of my savior, Yanova

She'll hear what I whisper, under my breath: Thank you. 

You saved my tears from the flame. Thank you.

Children and grandchildren you rescued from death.

I planted a sapling (it doesn't suffice) in your  name.

Time in its gyre spins back down the flue

faster than nightmares of nooses can ride,

quicker than nails. And you, my savior,

  in your cellar you'll hide

me, ascending in dreams as a pilgrim to you.

You'll come from the yard in your slippers,

  crunching the snow

so I'll know. Again I'm there in the cellar, degraded and low,

You're bringing me milk and bread sliced thick at the edge.

You're making the sign of the cross. 
I'm making my pencil its pledge. 

This poem, translated from Yiddish, was written by Abraham Sutzkever, who was born in Smorogon, Lithuania, in 1913. His infant son was killed by the Nazis, and him and his wife joined a Jewish resistance group after escaping a concentration camp.
In this poem he is paying tribute to Yanova Bartoszewicz, a Polish Christian woman who hid him.


-Ellana