Theresienstadt, Magdeburg Barracks Poem by Sheena Blackhall

I am Eva aged 10
Please look at my drawing
It’s all that’s left of me
The rest went up in smoke

My little life was lived
In crowded barracks
Afraid of guards, of sickness
Afraid of my own shadow

I didn’t play hangman’s noose
Gibbets made my parents shake like leaves

Arrests, locked doors and whispers
The silence of ghosts
Peek-a-boo! Here today, then gone!

People vanished like scribbles
Rubbed out from a dirty page