Census

Else Dormitzer

1943

Sensitive Content

This text recounts acts of antisemitic violence. The text provides insight into Jewish history; however, The Posen Library does not condone or promote violence or oppression of any kind.
Dense crowds proceed at dawn
Through Theresienstadt’s still empty streets
Five abreast curving around corners into squares.
The beast checks if anybody has stumbled.
Today God’s chosen people are being numbered!
You see each kind of person,
Only the sick are allowed to stay behind,
At five o’clock the order went out to herd—
No one exempted…
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Creator Bio

Else Dormitzer

1877–1958

The German poet and journalist Else Dormitzer fled from her hometown of Nuremburg to the Netherlands after November 1938; in 1943, however, she and her husband, who was to perish during the war, were deported to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. During her incarceration, Dormitzer wrote ten poems that were published in 1945 as Theresienstädter Bilder (Pictures from Theresienstadt).

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