Warsaw is Burning

-Matthew Hartmann

July 27, 2010

“Never say this is the final road for you,
Though leadened skies may
cover over days of blue.
As the hour that we longed for is so near,
Our
step beats out the message: we are here!”

Opening lines of Zog Nit Keynmol (Jewish Partisan anthem, English
translation)

O Warsaw how beautiful
you once were!

With your streets of cobble
The sky so clear and blue.

Now the sky is black
And rubble is everywhere.

The fires burn bright in the evening sky
as a small boy stands outside and cries.

The swastika has turned our
star into a symbol of shame.

For so long have we watched them
come and shoot even babies on the street.

Tired and weary we have found
a cache of guns.

Zog Nit Keynmol is our song
as we face a foe like no other.

Bullets fly and people dodge
We have to fight for our people.

Now like the Children of Israel
Warsaw is battered and bruised.

Perhaps we will die today but
it is better to die free.

We will not remain caged
and be sent to Buchenwald.

No longer shall our people
be butchered for our religion.

Hannah Sznes wrote that
“The dice have been tossed.”

She lost but we know that
this toss shall be won.

Matthew Hartmann is currently a graduate student working towards a MA in communications at Hawaii Pacific University who enjoys writing and traveling with a passion. He recently graduated with a BA in journalism from Central Washington University. When not studying he writes on his blog.