{"id":3898,"date":"2022-03-02T19:05:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T19:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alst.org\/?p=3898"},"modified":"2024-03-12T06:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T06:29:31","slug":"poem-by-alicia-karlstroem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/books\/reviews-and-comments\/poem-by-alicia-karlstroem\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM BY ALICIA KARLSTROEM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A day in Buchenwald<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The sun is smiling
Above me the sky is bright
But inside, my heart is tight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How cruelly misplaced
Bird song seems
Where thousands were killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a place silence demanding
Where every smile must freeze,
A place laughter forbidding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much torment endured,
How many lives lost?
So carelessly taken …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What suffering inflicted
Such crimes committed
At one man’s behest!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To each his own”
sneers the gate above,
a mournful heart is mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feelings that fill me
Are pity and rage,
Helpless anger burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How cold, how dull
The hearts of those
Who caused this agony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A door falling shut
Resounds in these rooms,
An eerie gunshot …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My God, how I thank Thee
That I freedom enjoy,
That you granted this gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never was I forced to suffer
Am still able to laugh
Pain and sorrow pass by me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet I am wistful,
These bloodstained roads
Hold me captive …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alicia Karlstroem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Alicia Karlstroem, age 16, the day a memorial stone<\/a> for Jehovah’s Witnesses was unveiled by Max Liebster and Rikola-Gunnar L\u00fcttgenau, deputy director of the Buchenwald Memorial, at Buchenwald concentration camp, May 9, 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A day in Buchenwald The sun is smilingAbove me the sky is brightBut inside, my heart is tight. How cruelly misplacedBird song seemsWhere thousands were killed. This is a place silence demandingWhere every smile must freeze,A place laughter forbidding. How much torment endured,How many lives lost?So carelessly taken … What suffering inflictedSuch crimes committedAt one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews-and-comments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3900,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions\/3900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}