'I Just Couldn't Do It'

Brenna Lorek, an eighth grader in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, sends this poem: 

If I had to say
Goodbye,
I would probably cry.

It would be one of the most

Saddest things
I would have to live with.

I would have just

Let the Nazis take me,
So I could die too.

It would also be

A great joy to escape,
But not to leave my family behind.

I don’t think I would be able

To leave my
Friends, family, and animals,
I just couldn’t do it.

Even if I lived

through the whole thing.
Or even if I escaped, I still don’t
Think I could have left anyone behind,
To die.

Even today I would feel

Great pain,
And regret it.
I would also be glad,
That I escaped,
And am safe.

There is so much empathy reflected in these words.  Thank you, Brenna, for reading and thinking about the lives and deaths of those who experienced the Holocaust.