Response to Poem

Holocaust
by Barbara Sonek

We played, we laughed
we were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. We had dreams, then we had no hope. We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind can not happen again. Remember us, 
for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away.

1. What is your initial reaction to this poem? i was a bit confused what it was about but when i figured out, it showed a lot of emotion and feelings.
2. How does the author use 'we' in this poem? Him and the other people that were taken away
3. What are the verbs used in the first sentence? We played, we laughed
4. What are the verbs used in the second sentence? How do they contrast with those used in the first sentence? It says we were loved, meaning that they aren't loved now, and they also say we laughed we played, also in past tense. Something happened which is explained later in the poem
5. What effect does the listing of 'lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers'? What is it meant to signify? That there future would have been a bright one if they weren't taken away, that if they were left lone they would have grown up to be something important.
6. What simile is used in the poem and what effect does it have? It gives us an image of a group of people being taken away 'like' a group of cattle. it gives us an insight about how badly they were treated
7. How has the poet represented herself in the last sentence? She represented herself as a group of people, not just one single person. She says remember us, meaning that she could have died or been dying.
8. If you could communicate to this person, a victim of the Holocaust, what would you want to say? What do you feel that you must do in your life as a response to this poem? I would say sorry, say thank you, because they seem to have been a big part of the war and that they would have endured so much for just living normally but because they were different, they had to be treated differently.