Yizkor, 1943

Rachel Auerbach

1943

Condemned to death. Who could—who wished to understand such a thing? And who could have expected such a decree against the mass? Against such low branches, such simple Jews. The lowly plants of the world. The sorts of people who would have lived out their lives without ever picking a quarrel with the righteous—or even the unrighteous—of this world…

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From the Curator

Auerbach wrote this elegy to the Warsaw ghetto after the Nazis destroyed it and deported the remaining residents to concentration camps. The title of the poem comes from the name of the Jewish memorial service recited on Yom Kippur. The Hebrew word means, “may He [God] remember,” and the service is intended to commemorate those who have died and to encourage atonement among the living. By using this symbolic religious language, Auerbach adopts a traditional Jewish liturgical framework for honoring Jewish martyrs while underscoring the indiscriminate plight of the victims.

Discussion Questions

Why do you think Auerbach emphasizes the geography of the ghetto in this poem?
What are the implications of the poem’s concluding statement that those who have died violent deaths because they are Jewish are now in the majority?
Is there a specific detail in this poem that brings the immense tragedy of the Holocaust to bear for you?

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