Destruction, starvation, death:
Whispers from so far away.
“Our world goes on as before.
It can’t be that bad,” we say.
“The media lies,
AI just spews fakes.
It’s not really real.
They must all be snakes.”
“Death surrounds us,” they cry
But no one hears their plea.
“We are all safe here.
Glad they are not we.”
Then war comes to us too
And we still let it be.
“What’s wrong with them?
We are still free.”
Parents imprisoned
because they are brown.
As if where we were born
Gives us rights to a crown.
Even those who belong
Hide out in fear.
Paper cannot save them.
That’s so last year.
Voices are silenced
When they dissent.
Now fractured states,
Our freedom spent.
As we set our own trap
And the price of our voice,
We let go of our love —
The last human choice.
This confessional is posted in the Holocaust Museum.
It will forever haunt my thoughts:
First they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak for me.
– Martin Niemöller, 1946.
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