Paper Family
from the U.S. Holocaust Museum
I am in an orphanage
or maybe a no-man’s-land
where the living marry the dead
making families.
It is where I find
Gert Laske a German Jew
perhaps a communist
Standing in line
I pluck him
from a bin
by the nape of his identification card.
He looks back
from a blurry black and white
smiling
his hair tasseled like he just ran a race
which he did
breaking the tape
by staying alive
I carry his card
through the museum
He is with me through
the rise of Nazism
the Final Solution
the Cattle Car
Nuremberg
He sits silently with me
in the Hall of Remembrance
its eternal flame drawing fresh memories
to the hexagonal heaven
But this is where I also meet
Susan Strauss Taube
Bernard Rechnitz
Rifka Fass
their cards left on the floor
Others less lucky
suffocate in restroom trash cans
like a toy genocide
But I rescue these four
my paper family
bringing them home
I am a righteous the tourist
10 thoughts on "Paper Family"
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You really relay this powerful museum experience and bring in the reality of how it still touches all of us.
I like this one…it has a dream quality and the metaphor of the toss away paper people runs true. Top to bottom it works. Power.
This expertly done. Chilling.
Oh wow! Thanks for taking the name and weaving an exdperience of not only the museum, but the grand story of the Holocaust.
A couple minor corrections:
Paper Family
from the U.S. Holocaust Museum
I am in an orphanage
or maybe a no-man’s-land
where the living marry the dead
making families
It is where I find
Gert Laske a German Jew
perhaps a communist
Standing in line
I pluck him
from a bin
by the nape of his identification card
He looks back
from a blurry black and white
smiling
his hair tasseled like he just ran a race
which he did
breaking the tape
by staying alive
I carry his card
through the museum
He is with me through
the rise of Nazism
the Final Solution
the Cattle Car
Nuremberg
He sits silently with me
in the Hall of Remembrance
its eternal flame drawing fresh memories
to the hexagonal heaven
But this is where I also meet
Susan Strauss Taube
Bernard Rechnitz
Rifka Fass
their cards left on the floor
Others less lucky
suffocate in restroom trash cans
like a toy genocide
But I rescue these four
my paper family
bringing them home
I am a righteous the tourist
Powerful.
each stanza carries so much
each line carries movement, physicality, aching truth
some favorite lines are:
where the living marry the dead
I pluck him
from a bin
by the nape of his identification card
their cards left on the floor
suffocate in restroom trash cans
like a toy genocide
Powerful…may we never forget them.
Final revision:
Paper Family
from the U.S. Holocaust Museum
I am in an orphanage
or maybe a no-man’s-land
where the living marry the dead
making families
It is where I find
Gert Laske a German Jew
perhaps a communist
Standing in line
I pluck him
from a bin
by the nape of his identification card
He looks back
from a blurry black and white
smiling
his hair tasseled like he just ran a race
which he did
breaking the tape
by staying alive
I carry his card
through the museum
He is with me through
the rise of Nazism
the Final Solution
the Cattle Car
Nuremberg
He sits silently with me
in the Hall of Remembrance
its eternal flame drawing fresh memories
to the hexagonal heaven
But this is where I also meet
Susan Strauss Taube
Bernard Rechnitz
Rifka Fass
their cards left on the floor
Others less lucky
suffocate in restroom trash cans
like a toy genocide
But I rescue these four
my paper family
bringing them home
I am righteous among the tourists
This poem (and the museum) gives them a new life as individuals again. Well thought.
Stunning. “Breaking the tape by staying alive” is brilliant.