New Voices Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust

The editors selected 58 images from noted collections consisting of vintage photography, propaganda posters, newsreel stills, etc. matching each to a poet, short story writer, plus features by essayists. Each writer uniquely interpreted these “ silent witnesses” from the period creating new perspectives for our times. The book includes four parts: Part I covers the rise of Nazism and heightening antisemitism. Writers focus on key events such as the Beer Hall Putsch and the Berlin Olympics. Part II revolves around forced labor, ghettos, and extermination, dealing with such topics as death squads, the “ final solution,” and collaborators. Part III is all about escape, rescue, and resistance, including the Danish rescue of its Jewish population and the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Part IV deals with the aftermath, the liberation of concentration camp prisoners, the refugee crisis, and the Nuremberg trials. Together this diverse group, including writers of color, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, LGBTQ, prominent and emerging writers, have contributed a powerful body of work that challenges international trends of xenophobia and anti-democratic movements by using the power of art to portray truth.

Matthew Silverman is co-editor of The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary American Jewish Poetry and 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium and author of The Floating Door and The Breath Before Birds Fly. Howard Debs is a recipient of the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. His book Gallery is the recipient of a 2017 Best Book Award and 2018 Book Excellence Award. His chapbook Political is the 2021 American Writing Awards winner in poetry.

CONTENTS Foreword/ Introduction/ PART I The Rise of Nazism and Heightening Antisemitism Chanukah: Kiel, Germany Yehoshua November/ The Child, the Bears, the War: 4 Views Jane Yolen/ Imagining my Great-Grandfather before He Was a Partisan, before He Was a Father Julia Dasbach/ The Beer Hall Putsch Tony Barnstone/ Postcard, 1932 Dan Bellm/ Physiognomy 101 Steven Sher/ Dog Walter and the Walther Pistol Mark Budman/ Books Fly like Birds Robert Perry Ivey/ The Other Peter Serchuk/ Flying African Geoffrey Philp/ Bystander Nancy Naomi Carlson/ Midnight Cake Alejandro Escude/ Kinder Gardens Su Hwang/ Night of the Broken Glass Philip Terman/ Body Boarding Gretchen Primack/ The Day Before Sue William Silverman/ Interwar Europe and the Scourge of ‘Identity Politics’ Paul Vincent/ PART II Forced Labor, Ghettos, Extermination Viewfinder Ben Banyard/ “A Vort Far A Vort”/Tit For Tat Judith Baumel/ In the Lodz Ghetto Marge Piercy/ Photograph of Jews Probably Arriving to the Lodz Ghetto Circa 1941-1942 Ellen Bass/ Assassination Greg Harris/ Buchenwald Raficq Abdulla/ SS Photo, Auschwitz, 1944 Jacqueline Osherow/ Words are Like Rivers Bruce Black/ Regen aus Heiterem Himmel / Rain from a Blue Sky Erin Redfern/ The Cigar Burning In Himmler’s Hand Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum/ Lubny, 1941 Susanna Lang/ Roma Bruce Bond/ Regarding the Pain of Others Alan Catlin/ Good Girls Sara Lippmann/ No One Marilyn Kallet/ Thoughts about the Inhumanity of Humanity Rob Rosenthal/ PART III Escape, Rescue, Resistance Duckwitz Tim Seibles/ Three Flowers Ami Kaye/ ichthus Amy Kinsman/ My Grandfather, a Refugee, Lined Up Outside the American Consulate in Marseilles Cheryl J. Fish/ Street Inventory Lauren Camp/ Chiune Sugihara and Family Outside the Japanese Consulate in Koenigsberg, Germany (1941) Cyril Wong/ We Built a House Dina Elenbogen/ Witness Wendy Brandmark/ Sobibor Becky Touch/ A man’s arms may TC Tolbert/ So Be It (Amen) Cortney Lamar Charleston/ DAWN Fabienne Josaphat/ Without Question Lois Jones/ Untitled (Maroon Bramble Wicks, August 1944) Mark Tardi/ Unearthed (The Ringelblum Archive) Amy Gerstler/ Moral Lessons of Remembering the Holocaust: A Muslim Response Mehnaz Afridi/ PART IV Aftermath 1945 Linda Pastan/ After the Liberation of Mauthausen: A Testimony Jean Nordhaus/ Aftermath Myra Sklarew/ Flight M. Miriam Herrera/ Nastupiste Patty Seyburn/ Newer Eyes Gili Haimovich/ What Comes Next Scott Nadelson/ The Displaced Barry Seiler/ If You, Like I, Seek a Happy Diaspora Nomi Stone/ Letter from Nuremberg, October 2nd 1946 Saul Hillel Benjamin/ A New Passover Prayer Before the Eating of the Korech (as commentary on the Nuremberg trials) Richard Michelson/ The Last Survivor Lia Pripstein-Lane/ Virtues in the Wake of Auschwitz Sam Fleischacker/