Anina Abastados

I heard your name only yesterday

Or maybe it was weeks ago, months, years

Maybe I have always known it

I hear your name so clearly in my mind

I can almost hear your voice

I can almost hear your laughter

You were taken in the Holocaust

From your homeland in Greece

Were you scared? Did you know what was happening?

I don't know much about your life

Or about your death

I only know that you died

Did you understand what was going on?

Did they herd you to death, screaming with sticks and guns?

Or did you enter the chambers quietly, fooled by the Nazi lies?

I never actually knew you, though I wish I had

I wish I could have been there to save you

Though I too would have been killed for being a Jew

Anina Abastados

You were my age when you were murdered, maybe younger

With so much life ahead of you, waiting for you

So much was stolen from you; possessions, freedom, life

I can almost see you, a running, happy child

Now known only as a name, whispered on the wind

Bringing with you so many memories

You bring memories of life and of death

Memories of murder and a fight for salvation

And a faint but unfaltering memory of you