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15-year-old Mitchell Brown’s Holocaust poem

15-year-old Mitchell Brown

Introduction: We received a call from subscriber Joe Brown in Toronto, who was very proud of his 15-year-old grandson Mitchell, for having composed a Holocaust-themed poem. Joe sent us the poem and, although I said to him that I wasn’t sure we had enough space to print it in its entirety in the newspaper, I assured Joe we would post it to our website.
But, I told Joe I wanted to know more about Mitchell, so he contacted Mitchell and asked him to get in touch with me.

When I spoke with Mitchell, I asked him to describe how he had come to write his poem. What follows is the explanation Mitchell sent us.
“My name is Mitchell Brown and I’ve always had a passion for writing. Through my schooling, my teachers have encouraged me to begin to share my writing with other readers and use my words to spread meaning. So, I decided to take a plain old school assignment in history class and share powerful emotions and words on a very serious and difficult topic. The result was my Holocaust poem titled “A Mothers Nightmare in Auschwitz Death Camp.” I decided to make this poem a reflective piece to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. I feel so disappointed when peers my age have little knowledge of the tragedies of the Holocaust, and I feel that it is the job of the youth to have a voice and spread awareness on important topics such as the Holocaust. I’ve learned throughout my writing the most powerful tool to spread messages and share emotions is through words. My poem follows a mother and her two children as they enter Auschwitz death camp, a common narrative that too many innocent Jewish families underwent. The poem captures the emotions and thoughts that this family experienced.”

“A Mother’s Nightmare in Auschwitz Death Camp”

By Mitchell Brown 
 
Hilda felt confusion 
Where are we she wondered 
Why are we here she pondered  
She and her two boys exited the cattle car  
Why are we being grouped up 
 
A menacing building appeared in front of Hilda 
A large factory she thought as big as a city 
A huge city 
With the words Arbeit Macht frei 
She knows that means work sets you free 
Am I working 
Why do I need to be set free 
She asked questions  
She thought the worse 
Her heart was pounding  
The ground she stood on felt rock hard like stone 
Scared and numb she felt 
Cold and anxious  
 
Screams so loud  
It looked like a place from a nightmare 
What they are creating in this factory  
Smog coming from the building  
Deep earthy stench pumping out of the building ahead of her 
Clouds of burnt smog 
Hilda had never smelt this type of smog before 
It confused her and her children 
 
Large hoards of people were being pushed 
Separated like cattle at a farm 
Nazi soldiers yelling with authority  
Humans everywhere 
 
She felt like an animal 
What is this smog why is it so cloudy  
The smog smelt as burned as a campfire 
Why does it smell like that 
Hilda’s young boys hated the stench 
It must be smog from a factory my children 
 
We are here to help out at this factory  
Hilda repeated to her children 
Natural intuition

Something isn’t right here 
 
Why are my children here 
Tattoos 
Scary strong Nazi men 
Giving tattoos  
Numbers 
Are we humans 
Why am I number 
Why are my children a different number than me 
 
I want them to know my name 
Not a number 
I feel so scared 
I want to be a human 
 
Is this a factory  
What are they making 
Are they burning something 
Why am I labeled with a number 
93102 
What does this mean 
 
If so what 
What are they burning 
Getting nervous and her heart is thudding  
Calm down Hilda 
Take a deep breath 
You will be back home soon 
In your warm comfortable safe town soon 
 
Come now boys don’t be scared 
Hilda calmed her children 
With her soft Mothers voice 
You will be safe in my arms 
 
Soldiers were separating family taking kids away from parents 
Like robots systematically dismantling families with no remorse 
Like water and oil 
Children and parents apart far apart  
 
The boys are gone 
Where did they go 
A soldier took all the children  
Where are my children 
Her throat was pulsing   
 
Hilda cried  
Hilda was grabbed by a soldier 
She shouted to the soldier 
Where are my children 
No response 
 
Hilda never seen her two children ever again 
 
Four weeks later 
Skinny and weak 
Hungry and scared 
Dirty and sore 
Soldiers are moving us like farm animals 
Hordes of crowds 
Numbers all have numbers 
All in pajamas 
 
Nazis said we are going to bathe 
Hilda needed it she was weak and dirty 
A crowd of 700 people were shoved into a dark cold room with no windows or light 
Shower time shouted a German soldier 
All naked 
 
She and 700 other frail and malnourished numbered people were here 
Door locked 
No escape she thought 
All had numbers on their wrist  
Why are we numbers 
A shower with numbers 
Strange and unknown 
 
Scratch marks on the walls of this shower room 
Hilda was crammed 
Where is the water for this shower  
Why are we all naked and packed like sardines  
I’m scared 
Help me god please 
Crammed into this dark cold terrifying room 
She felt numb and fearful 
Desensitized and anesthetized 
 
All she could think about was her children she had not seen them for 4 weeks 
Their gentle smile 
Where are they 
She questioned 
Where did they take the children 
I love them 
I want sympathy 
Relief and reassurance 
 
Her last thought in her mind was her two beautiful children 
There short brown hair and green eyes  
Their tender and humane skin  
They’re comforting and cheerful voices 
 
I can’t escape this 
 
Thud 
A mechanism clicked and vents above opened  
People were screaming in terror 
Scratching on the walls for freedom like nails on a chalkboard 
I want to be a human again 
This isn’t a shower 
Good night my dearest children she thought 
I’ll see you guys soon 
I love you 
 
Auschwitz Death Camp is responsible for 1.1 million deaths out of the 11 million victims of the Holocaust. 
We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust. 
We vow never again. 
 
Good night my dearest children she thought
I’ll see you guys soon
I love you

Auschwitz Death Camp is responsible for 1.1 million deaths out of the 11 million victims of the Holocaust.
We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust.
We vow never again.
­

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Musings from Dizengoff Street – by Bruce Brown

(August 8, 2026)

Outside Basimta Café in Central Jerusalem.  Love the red shirt against a tiny sea of black.  Not sure I am shrugging because of the ultra-orthodox uproar over a Jerusalem café operating on Shabbat or the lack of an ultra-orthodox uproar over a Jerusalem café operating on Shabbat.  For the last six weeks Israeli headlines shouted about the cafe chaos.  With the ultra-religious blocking entrances and storming the café.  While shouting ‘Shabbos!  Shabbos!’   Upsetting the secular amongst us just wanting to enjoy our Saturday iced matchas.  So the wife and I thought we would check it out.  And.  Yes.  Buy something to support the business.  Uproar.  Not.  Blocked entrances.  Not.  Storming the café.  Not.  Albeit there were police barriers separating the devout protesters from the coffee drinkers.  The protesters being just a few dozen black clad, pious Jews.  Mostly teenagers.   And yes.  Shouting ‘Shabbos!  Shabbos!’  Certainly underwhelming in its reported mayhem.  Reminds me of the famous saying misattributed to Mark Twain – “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed.  If you do, you’re misinformed.”  But I did enjoy my iced matcha.

(August 6, 2026)

Here we go again.  Another round of forever negotiations.  As someone who negotiates for a living.  The way things are going in the straits.  If I had to recommend a book on the subject to a new hire.  Between The Art of the Deal, A Presidential Edition by Donald J. Trump or The Real Art of the Deal by the Mullahs of Iran with a special forward by the IRGC. Well.  I would choose the latter.

(August 3)

Bravo Yoav Segalovitz, Liberal Yesh Atid MK and Monsour Abbas, United Arab Ra’am MK and party head.  For breaking a glass ceiling where a Jewish lawmaker joins an Arab political party.  No less a political earthquake in my little shtetl.  Which can significantly impact coalition block arithmetic and posturing and strategy in the upcoming elections.  Now Ra’am can be considered a legitimate ‘Zionist’ partner when forming coalition blocks and potentially pushing the ‘center left/right’ party over the 60 seat majority threshold.  In our crazy parliamentary democracy defined by a multi-party (about fourteen!!), proportional representation system.  To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Israel’s proportional representation model of governance is the best parliamentary democracy system except for all other forms of working democracies.  Stay tuned for more amateurish political musings as we move towards Israel’s 26th national election – five of them held since 2019. 

(August 1)

Although both sides say they are open to diplomacy.  Neither really trusts the other.  And American military action, or its threat, continues.  I read headlines in the middle of the night -it’s a nervous habit lately– that the Dynamic Duo of Trump and Netanyahu may again strike in unison.  Possibly this weekend.  Yikes!  Prompting me, at 2:30 AM, to dash around the house stocking my safe room.  Bottled water.  Canned food.  Medicines. Documents. The beat goes on….

If it’s crazy here.  It’s insane in Italy.  With a recent online ‘Jew Hunt’ in the Milan area.  Before being removed, the digital forms urged reportings of Israelis and Italian Jews staying in local hotels.  The infamous Global Sumud Movement -yes, the one coordinating ‘peace and humanitarian’ flotillas to Gaza- was somehow connected.  Although they deny involvement?!  This deranged decree was looking to identify Zionist tourism and Zionist neo-colonization in Italy.  I’ll stick with stocking the saferoom.

Then there’s New York Mayor Mamdani, a Global Sumud Movement supporter, threatening to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu if he comes to New York.   But since discovered he has no legal right for such a grandstanding, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-democratic antic.  Maybe Mandami should be arrested!  Or at least impeached.  For being a grandstanding, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Western, anti-democratic mayor.


Here’s a post Bruce sent us Friday, July 31:
WARTIME MUSINGS

Should credible threats against FLOTUS and ‘FSOTUS’ (first son..) not be justification to attack first.

As for yesterday’s summit. Netanyahu really can’t win. Explainer. If Trump now attacks without victory its ’cause of Netanyahu. If Trump now attacks with victory its ’cause of Trump. And, in Israel, if Trump doesn’t attack -victory or not- Netanyahu failed in his eighth meeting with Trump. And if Trump does attack -victory or not- half the country will vilify Bibi anyway. Missing a permutation?

Ya. I know. Kinda’ need a definition of victory for that musing to work.
And here in my little shtetle. We go to sleep unsure if there will be a code red in the middle of the night. And if not. We wake up thinking it will be tonight. How do you define stress?

Seemed like an appropriate way to end this musing.

Bruce Brown is a former Winnipegger who made aliyah to Israel over 35 years ago. Bruce first began writing for us – in his own inimitable style, in 2012, during what was known as “Operation Pillar of Defense.” His occasional musings on aspects of life in Israel that were far from what you’d typically read in other reports from Israel were hugely popular – both in the print Jewish Post & News and on this website.
We’re now glad to report that Bruce is back writing for us – this time on a regular basis. We will post Bruce’s reports as they arrive – with the date of each post at the beginning of that post.
Here’s
some information about Bruce – and awards he’s received for his writing:

Bruce Brown.  Canadian born.  Now living in Israel (for a long time).  Bruce works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night.  He received the American Jewish Press Association’s award for writing excellence in 2019 and 2025.  And wrote the 1998 satire, “An Israeli is….”  Bruce’s musings are political, social, economic and personal.  With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight.

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Israel pavilion ambassadors – then and now

By BERNIE BELLAN Given that Folklorama is on again and the Israel pavilion – Shalom Square, is in full swing, I thought it timely to resurrect an article I first posted to this website in August 2023.

But before reading that article, I wanted you to see who this year’s ambassadors are for Shalom Square:

l-r: Youth Ambassador Lihi Ben Chimoi; Adult Ambassador Teddy Rubenstein; Youth Ambassador Abby Zentner; Adult Ambassador Shiran Dandiker

It was back in 2023, however, that I set out to answer a question that I had asked our readers to help answer: Where was the very first Israel pavilion located? Some readers had thought it was the Golden Age Club, which used to be located on Pritchard and Salter. But others weren’t so sure. Here then is what I wrote back in August 2023 – when, with the help of a librarian at the Winnipeg Public Library, I was able to solve the riddle of where the first Israel pavilion was located:

It was earlier in August 2023 that I had raised a number of questions about the history of the Israel pavilion at Folklorama.
Among those questions were: Where was the first Israel pavilion located and when did the Israel pavilion actually become a permanent fixture in the YMHA on Hargrave (before moving to its current home in the Asper Campus)?
As part of my search for answers to those questions I turned to David Cohen, who had long been the coordinator of the Israel pavilion when it was located on Hargrave, but who didn’t step into that role until 1975.
David thought that the Israel pavilion hadn’t moved to Hargrave until 1974, but he wasn’t sure where the first Israel pavilion had been located.
I tried to find information using the Winnipeg Public Library online digital archive. In case you didn’t know, anyone with a library card can access the library’s online archive. You can also have access to newspaperarchive.com through the library’s digital archive. Newspaperarchive.com is an invaluable reference tool for journalists especially – or anyone wanting to access old newspaper archives, for that matter, but ordinarily you would need a subscription to newspaperarchive.com in order to use it. For some reason, however, the search function in the Winnipeg Public Library’s digital search engine didn’t produce results when I entered the word “Folklorama.”
As a result I called the Winnipeg Public Library for assistance and received great help from someone by the name of Louis-Phillipe. After taking my information, Louis-Phillipe phoned me to say that he had found out that the library had compiled a file of press clippings related to Folklorama going back to the very first year, 1970.
Further, Louis-Phillipe said, he had found a list of the 22 pavilions in that first year of Folklorama, along with where they were located. It turns out that the Israel pavilion was actually located in two different venues that first year: the Rosh Pina and the Shaarey Zedek.
The next day I also heard from reader Phyllis Dana, who confirmed that the Israel Pavilion had been in both synagogues. Phyllis also remembered that the only food served that first year was honey cake.
But the pièce de resistance came when I heard from reader Marilyn Breitman (née Stitz), who now lives in Calgary, when she phoned me on Monday, August 21 (which is when she received the August 16 issue of the paper with my story about Folklorama).
Marilyn told me that, not only did she remember that the first Israel pavilion alternated between the Rosh Pina and the Shaarey Zedek, she had actually been the female representative of the Israel pavilion that first year. Her title, Marilyn said, was simply “Jewish.”
But, as you might also recall, the entire confusion over where the first Israel pavilion was located began with an email I had received from Roz Greenfeld, who had written to correct my mistake when I had written in the August 2 issue that the Israel pavilion had been located in the YMHA from the very beginning.
Roz pointed out that, in 1971, the second year of Folklorama, the Israel pavilion was located in “Council House” or, as it was better known, “The Golden Age Club,” on Pritchard and Salter. How did she remember that? Roz was the female representative of the pavilion that year. Her title, as I found out was “Miss Judea,” she said.
So, if the Israel pavilion was located at both the Rosh Pina and Shaarey Zedek in that first year of Folkorama, and in the Golden Age Club that second year, where was it after that?
It was left to Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada archivist Andrew Morrison to come up with the answer to that question. Andrew informed me that the Israel pavilion did indeed move to the YMHA in 1972 and remained there for the next 25 years, until it moved to the Asper Campus in 1997.

Here are the female representatives of the Israel pavilion for the first six years of Folklorama. All pictures are taken from past Jewish Posts, except for Marilyn Stitz’s, which is from a 1970 Free Press. In all cases the names are those that were in the papers at the time. Top row (l-r): Mariyln Stitz (1970), Roslyn Bernstein (1971), Marla Guberman (1972); Bottom row (l-r): Maureen Etkin (1973), Francine Wise (1974), Barbara Daien (1975)


There was a further footnote to the story, which is when I decided to try my luck with the Winnipeg Public Library’s online archive one more time. This time, rather than searching for “Folklorama,” I tried searching for old copies of both the Free Press and the Tribune from August 1970. I did manage to get results for the Tribune and when I entered a specific search within the Tribune I found a picture of all the famale representatives of pavilions – in bathing suits.
It turned out – and this was corroborated by both Marilyn Breitman and Roz Greenfeld, the female representatives had to parade in unison – in bathing suits, as part of Folklorama festivities. Each year, as well, a queen of Folklorama was chosen. Neither Marilyn nor Roz was made queen, both of them told me, although Roz was voted “Miss Congeniality.”
In addition to finding out about the early days of the Israel pavilion, I also learned that the Chai dancers were not regular performers at the Israel pavilion in those early years – as they eventually did become. Chai performers would dance only one night in those first years, with other entertainment the other nights.
I did enlist Andrew Morrison’s help once again and did find that Chai performed only one evening during the first few years of Folklorama – from 1970 to 1976. In 1977 Chai began performing every night of Folklorama, but there were other performers on hand as well, including Jerry Maslowsky and Rabbi Yosel Rosenzweig. In 1978 the Chai Folk Ensemble was the featured entertainment every evening; however, a notice that appeared in our paper did say that whistler Harvey Pollock would “be on hand” to entertain – whatever that meant.
While some may wonder of what earth shaking importance all this is, I ask: Isn’t it fun to look back in time – for just a little while, instead of worrying about more immediate problems, such as global warming, inflation, terrorist attacks in Israel, and whether Donald Trump will be president while he’s in jail?

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