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Say the Name: A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry
Say the Name A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry Author:Judith H. Sherman Say the Name vividly describes in the voice of a fourteen-year-old the experiences of a Jewish girl who was imprisoned in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp during World War II. Miraculously, Judita Sternova of Kurima, Czechoslovakia, survives persecutions, hiding, flight, capture, deportation, and the Camp. Like the few other surviving Jews,... more » she could not bear to remain in her village emptied of family and other Jews and emigrates to England and, eventually, the United States. After more than fifty years Sherman gets up from her years of memories, private resistance, and public silence to write this book. She is triggered to do so upon hearing a lecture by Professor Carrasco at Princeton on "Religion and the Terror of History." The narrative is interspersed with Sherman's powerful poems that grab the reader's attention. Poignant original drawings made secretly by imprisoned women of Ravensbruck, at risk of their lives, illuminate the text. Sherman courageously bears witness to the terror of man and simultaneously challenges God for answers. This book should "jolt us into remembrance, warning, and action."From Say the NameSurvivor's Legacy Wish to Her ChildrenBread, always bread
stars that lighten the heavens
not brand your chests
always, always?water
trains to journeys of delight
with seats, windows,
tickets of return
no accent;
fathers to hold your children?s hand
children who outgrow their shoes
Your mantle of ?Jew?
of cloth so light
so safe
so Kol B?Seder;
mothers?oh yes?mothers?
mothers you can stand up to!
Israel to fill your soul.and what of Auschwitz memory?