“I Cannot Forget” by Alexander Kimel, contributed by Marcel Ramos (2025)
I Cannot Forget
by Alexander Kimel
Do I want to remember?
The peaceful ghetto, before the raid:
Children shaking like leaves in the wind.
Mothers searching for a piece of bread.
Shadows, on swollen legs, moving with fear.
No, I don’t want to remember, but how can I forget?
Do I want to remember, the creation of hell?
The shouts of the Raiders, enjoying the hunt.
Cries of the wounded, begging for life.
Faces of mothers carved with pain.
Hiding Children, dripping with fear.
No, I don’t want to remember, but how can I forget?
Do I want to remember my fearful return?
Families vanished in the midst of the day.
The mass grave steaming with vapor of blood.
Mothers searching for children in vain.
The pain of the ghetto, cuts like a knife.
No, I don’t want to remember, but how can I forget?
Do I want to remember the wailing of the night?
The doors kicked ajar, ripped feathers floating the air.
The night scented with snow-melting blood.
While the compassionate moon is showing the way.
For the faceless shadows, searching for kin.
No, I don’t want to remember, but I cannot forget.
Do I want to remember this world upside down?
Where the departed are blessed with an instant death.
While the living condemned to a short wretched life,
And a long tortuous journey into unnamed place,
Converting living souls into ashes and gas.
No. I Have to Remember and Never Let You Forget.
I chose this poem because I have a passion for Holocaust studies. In December of 2023, I went on a trip to Poland, and I saw all six extermination camps, and that experience forever marked my perspective on human rights. When we discussed epitaphs in section a month ago, I was reminded of the things I saw during that trip, and ever since then, it has been on my mind. I think this poem reflects the loss and mental burden that someone who survived the Holocaust endured, but it is also a moral reflection on our consciousness—specifically, memory. When it comes to understanding the grief and loss of that magnitude, I'm reminded of the memoir Wave, where there are different stages and different losses—separate and sometimes at once—and all we can do is understand, accept, and not judge.