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Solly Ganor

Over the years I've written a number of poems. I'd like to share some of them with you here.

Lager (Camp) Four

Thoughts, emotions, and remembrance of Lager Four, Kaufering, during my visit there on the 50th commemoration year of its liberation by the US Army on 4.27.1945

Unter a bloyem himl fun Kaufering,
Shteyen groje farshwarzte kvorim,
Die grine farshimlte oisies koim lesbar,
Do liegen unsere brider kedoishim

Under a clear blue Kaufering sky,
Stand grey stones blackened with age,
The green, corroded letters barely visible,
Here lie our martyred friends.

Neither flowers grow here, nor birds do sing,
Only evil shadows of the old Nazi regime,
Abandoned stands here our world of dead brothers,
Amidst the German meadows of flowers and green.

I stand and cry, with a pain in my heart,
before the pit that was once Lager four,
Here starving brothers in agony died,
I can sense their presence around me once more.

I can hear their screams, their agonised moan,
Why do I die here, and die all alone,
Far from parents, from children and wife,
Years ago they had lost their lives.

2

The chimneys of Auschwitz, they glowed purple red,
As they vanished in flames and now are all dead,
And now our turn, dear brothers have come,
The last of the family soon will be gone.

I can see as they lie and hear their last sigh,
Their naked bodies completely consumed,
The death of ŒMuselman‚ is their bitter end,
And soon they‚ll be dropped in a deep pit of sand.

I can still hear their barely audible words,
Go away dear brother to better worlds,
Don't forget us when you are far away,
And say for us Kadish if you may.

This poem is dedicated to the innocent victims of Lager Four.

Oceans of Blood

We sailed upon oceans of blood,
And the captain's name was death,
The winds in our sails were winds of hate,
And the world just couldn't care less.

We called on each port to let us get off,
we cried, we be begged we moaned,
But our cries and tears fell on deaf ears,
Because their hearts were made of stone.

The crew of the vessel, they sang the Horst Wessel,
While we prayed to God in fear,
We appealed to the world to save our souls,
But the world refused to hear.

We sailed into darkness where time had no meaning,
We were murdered in millions without pitty or feeling,
They worked us in pits where no one could last,
And when we were finished, we were to be gassed.

They didn't use coal to light their fire,
The fat of our bodies forced the flames higher,
The sky in the darkness it glowed purple red,
The war was soon over, but we were all dead.

When they knew that they had lost the war,
And Europe lay ruined from shore to shore,
They were at least proud in having caused,
The death of our millions and the Holocaust.

But on the oceans of the eternal night,
There was Sempo Sugihara's single light,
He gave out visas from morning till late,
To thousands of people who stood at his gate.

He was the man whose sole shone so bright,
Who lost his career to do what was right,
He never asked for praise or pay,
He did it all in his modest way.

We came to the land of the rising sun,
To pay tribute to its illustrious son,
To a man whose spirit was noble and kind,
And showed an example to all of Mankind.

This poem was written in Herzelia, Israel, July 1994, and published in Japanese High School Magazines that year.

The poem was written as a tribute to Sempo Chiune Sugihara, who did his very best to save thousands of our people. I will always remember him as the only light in the sea of darkness that surrounded us in Lithuania during the war.

I will never forget the man with the kind eyes whom I met as a child. The Year was 1940.

The place, Kaunas Lithuania. His parting words to me were in Spanish.

" Vaja Con Dios", he said.

Vaja Con Dios, Sempo Sugihara. I am sure you have earned a special place in paradise.

He Was My Brother

I didn't know Abe Landau, yet he was my brother,
The brother I had lost In the flames of the Holocaust.

I didn't know Abe Landau, yet I knew him well,
For together we dwelt in the abyss of hell,
Together we lived in the shadow of the beast,
Where there was soulless darkness,
And nothing human could exist.

Together we froze, together we starved,
Together we scrounged for a crust of bread,
Together we strived to stay alive,
Together we buried our piles of dead.

Together we worked where no one could last,
Together we watched our families gassed,
Together we dreamt, together we cried,
Together we prayed to the world outside.

And on the day of our liberation,
When we emerged through the gates of hell,
There was no cause for jubilation,
There were so few us left to tell.

And yet we few, our spirits uncrushed,
We rebuilt our lives and made it last,
We raised from scratch new generations,
And enriched the world and all its nations.

I didn't know Abe Landau, yet he was my brother,
I lost a brother yet I can not cry,
After six million tears,
My tears have gone dry.

Herzelia, Israel. February 20, 2000.
In the memory of a brother survivor, Abe Landau, who passed away.