Read I Am a Star for Free Online

film was made at this time to document the “good” conditions in Terezin.

    Camp money.
    DECEPTION
    All is readied for a Red Cross inspection,
Our very existence is based on deception.
Could the world be lulled to believe,
The camouflage only a devil can conceive?
Numbered blocks are renamed with a street sign.
It is paradise here; we are doing fine.
In the park a band shell is erected,
Special lines are taught us and perfected.
“Uncle Rahm, 1 again we have sardines today?
We are really sick of them, we want to play.”
A children’s pavilion set up to impress and show,
Life is normal here; a “fact” for everyone to know.
In the square there is a new café house,
Only the selected are allowed to browse.
We have our own bank and money here,
On which Moses and the tablets appear.
With it nothing but mustard can be bought,
And a new school, in which we are not taught.
Markers to theater and playground,
All will soon be no longer around.
Only special areas are shown with pride,
Most of us are ordered to remain inside.
As fast as commission is out of sight,
We have to bear again tyrannical might.
Soon there will be another selection,
No change; the world believed the deception.
     
    1 SS camp commandant.
    Terezin was the antechamber to Auschwitz. Eichmann personally saw to it that there was a constant flow of transports from Terezin to feed the gas chambers at Auschwitz. He and the SS commandant of Terezin determined which groups of people were to be sent East and then ordered the Jewish Council of Elders to draw up a list of one thousand people from the designated groups for each transport. At one time only old people were called up; at another, the most highly decorated war veterans. The selection process depended entirely on the whims of the SS. We lived day and night with the fear of being sent to the East. There were times when transports left every week. The unfortunate people who had been selected were given a number which was tied around their necks, and were told to assemble at a specific barrack. From there they were forced to enter the cattle cars. The doors were bolted and not opened until their arrival in Auschwitz. Most of the camp Elders eventually suffered the same fate: they, too, were killed in the gas chambers in Auschwitz. When the last selection to the East was made in 1944, all remaining disabled war veterans had to appear at SS headquarters. A red circle was drawn around our names. We had been spared from certain death.

    The crematorium at Terezin.
    SOMETHING TO REMEMBER ME BY
    He was a stranger; we had never met,
He wanted me to recall him, not to forget.
Obviously sensing his awful situation,
Nervous and persuasive in his presentation.
     
    He handed me a box filled with treasure,
And hoped it would give me much pleasure.
Odds and ends up to the brim,
For dreams of any child’s whim.
“Something to remember me by!”
     
    I was startled and full of surprise,
A rainbow of color before my eyes.
Things made of threads attached to eternity,
Knitted by loving hands without identity.
     
    His eyes looked hopeless; in a daze,
He walked restless, as if in a maze.
He was a humble man — without fame,
Staying unknown — never stating his name.
“Something to remember me by!”
     
    He rode away on the death train,
Filled with desperation and pain.
He rests with the ashes in sleep,
His memory I will forever keep.
     
    The little girl now fully grown,
Remembers him, though still unknown.
To this day his words sound loud and clear,
His presence assured from year to year.
“Something to remember me by!”

    HOLD ME TIGHT
    Come with me, my child, hold my hand,
Be calm, my child, do not try to understand.
Don’t be afraid, my child, walk with pride,
You know your mother is here at your side.
    Hold me tight,
Day has turned to night,
Soon we’ll see the light.
    No, no, don’t look at the chimneys — see the blue sky,
My arm is around you to protect you;