Jewish

Six Red Candles

Stacey Shubitz

Six red candles flicker.  One candle for each of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust.

Anna
Celia
Emma
Gertrude
Hannah
Leah
And many unknown first names.

The sun shines through the stained glass widows. The beauty of our first spring-like day almost masks the solemness of this Yom Hashoah.

Avram
David
Levi
Hirsh
Sam
Solomon
And many unknown last names.

The readers’ voices are solemn. No one smiles.

Age 1
Age 7
Age 12
Age 24
Age 53
Age 86
And many unknown ages.

I read pages of names whose lives ended in unspeakable horror.  Scores of people whose lives ended because of hatred.

Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bergen-Belsen
Buchenwald
Jasenovac
Maly Trostenets
Treblinka
And many unknown places.

On this Day of Remembrance, I remember those whose lives were cut short.  May our world never know horror like the Holocaust again.

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Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

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