(I missed posting on International Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th as I was away on holiday.  This is a belated re-post.  Hana Reiner is a name painted on a small suitcase exhibited at the Auschwitz Museum; one of thousands).

 

Hana Reiner, who were you?

Russian, Czech or Polish Jew?

Did promises of better lives

Become no more than cattle drives?

Did you mother bring you there?

Did they shave your head of hair?

Did they pull your teeth for gold?

Did you shiver in the cold?

Pointed left or pointed right,

Did you cry both day and night?

Had your short life just begun

Or had your lifespan overrun?

Was it quick or was it slow?

In the end how did you go?

 

No birth, no death, no age, no face

Just a name upon a case;

Were you young or were you old?

Your story never shall be told;

Forgotten life in Death's long queue

Hana Reiner, who were you?