Helen Katz

Mini-Project by Katrina Schnieder: A Poem in First Person

Potyo

You Helen, were the baby of us all

Born in the middle of Winter, but it felt like Fall

You received all our love and all our attention

The war was over, did I forget to mention?

This joyous time, and your start of life

But soon after your arrived, we were met with strife

We thought that the us Katz family would live in peace

Yet the harmony and joy of Hungary was about to be ceased

You enjoyed school and excelled in study

The kids in the neighborhood were soon your best buddies

It was the teachers that hurt your feelings

Your Jewish heritage they found anything but appealing

In the middle of the decade there were rumbles of war

Many young men sent from the reserve officers training corps

I wanted to leave but your father insisted we stay

He had already been to America and feared it a bad hideaway

Your father relented under my constant plea

Back to America he went, trying to find a visa for thee

So we stayed in Hungary and said ‘good-bye’ to our old life

Everything changed, I could not protect you from the hatred that was rife

You soon were banished from your school

Though it might have been a blessing to avoid such ridicule

The day your father wrote and said it was too late

I cried and cried and thought ‘what can I do for my family’s fate?’

For Hungary was now at war with the United States

Our beacon of hope and where your father awaits

We would remain fractured, a family torn

For a while we would be safe, but eventually we would mourn

Your nightmares increased in frequency and detail

Each night I came running to your bed for comfort, but your fear I could not downscale

Perhaps somehow you knew the horrors and struggles we would face

Things a child should never have to have enter in their headspace

Life in Hungary got worse and worse, the police more forceful and strict

Their new laws and measures against us Jews were impossible to predict

The day we moved into the ghetto I thought maybe it was temporary

The violence and beatings within its walls became so arbitrary

One evening we were warned to be prepared for early travel the next day

In my heart I knew where we were going but could not say

On that train ride I hugged you close my dear Potyo and never wanted to let go

Three days later we both left the earth, and here in Heaven my love for you and all my children can only grow