Page 47 - Witness

TO EACH OF THEM
And to each of them, I will give a name and a monument
To every man, to every woman, to every child
And to each of them, I will give a name and a monument
To those who fought
And to those who had no way to fight To those who sang on their way to their deaths
And to those who were silent
To those who found God in the camps And to those who declared God dead And to each of them, I will give a name and a monument
To those who went hungry so their children could eat
And to those who stole their children’s bread in the night
To those who displayed the strength of the human spirit
And to those who let the pain overtake them
And to each of them, I will give a name and a monument
To those who were there
When every bite of bread was a decision When every step could cause death
To the heroes and to the non-heroes
The strong and the weak
To those who were superhuman
And to those who, like you and I
Were merely, most importantly
Human
—Aviva Goldberg, 17, March of the Living, 1990
On April 19, 1943 a small band of Jewish fighters launched the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, holding off the mighty German army for almost a month. Ultimately, the Nazis defeated them, but only after burning down the entire ghetto. The Rapoport Memorial in Warsaw features sculpted images of the ghetto fighters, led by Mordechai Anielewicz, who fell during the uprising.
39