‘And my heart cries’: Poem by educator who escaped Holocaust honors children of Ukraine
.JPG "Miriam Klein Kassenoff was interviewed by South Miami High School students last year as part of “Names, Not Numbers.” She is a longtime educator who teaches about the Holocaust. She and her family fled Slovakia when she was young.")
Miriam Klein Kassenoff was only 4 when her parents Sara and Maurice Klein and her late brother, federal Judge Ted Klein, escaped the horrors of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Europe. Although she was only a small child, Kassenoff has never forgotten the terror she felt as her family made their escape. She recently told me that the war in the Ukraine and the way the people are being murdered — especially the children — reminds her of the Holocaust.
Kassenoff was so touched by the scenes she saw on her television of crying children, hungry and cold and being displaced because of the war, she was inspired to write a poem. While it is not a Miami Herald policy to publish poetry, I felt moved to share Kassenoff’s moving poem in my column in honor of the people of the Ukraine and in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day:
‘Ode to the Children of Ukraine’
I see small children running and hiding and crossing borders
and holding on tight to their parents… carrying little suitcases of meager belongings
And my heart cries as I watch
I see young mothers clutching infants in their arms and the fear on their face
Whether they will survive this atrocity from this madman
And my heart cries as I watch
I see small children handed over borders and fences to strangers as
Mothers plead, please save my child
And my heart cries as I watch
But fear not small children because you will survive, and you will
remember this always
And you will fight when you grow up that something
like this should not happen again
My heart lifts because I know this is what will happen
Because I was once you…
Running and hiding and escaping and clutching my mother’s hand
while the madman was chasing us
In my case only because I was a Jew
But in the end the madman didn’t get us
In the end it was he who did not survive
But I did survive, and you will to
And for generations to come you will tell of this
And your survival and the survival of your children and grandchildren will be the revenge to this madman’s atrocities
You will grow up. You will thrive and educate and live a good life
And then my heart will cry no more.
Kassenoff is the founding director of the University of Miami’s Holocaust Teacher Institute and the Holocaust Education Specialist for Miami-Dade Public Schools. In honor of Yom HaShoah, she will tell her story of escaping through seven European borders at 6 p.m. Friday (April 29) at Temple Beth Sholom, 4144 Chase Ave. in Miami Beach.
The annual Holocaust Remembrance Day observance on Sunday, May 1, will be an event that will feature “Survivor Testimony, Prayers and Songs,” according to a press release from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. It will be held at the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, 1933-1945 Meridian Ave.
A highlight of the ceremony will be a testimony from Holocaust survivor Allan Hall, who like Kassenoff, was only 4 when Nazi Germany occupied his childhood home of Krakow. His family was forced to flee from one city to another throughout World War II, narrowly avoiding capture at each turn.
Unfortunately, Hall’s family was identified by the Nazis and was moved to Jewish Ghettos where he was taken to a Nazi holding camp. His fathers was ultimately able to free him, but still, danger lurked, and Hall was later arrested by the Gestapo. He narrowly escaped being sent to the Treblinka concentration camp when he was 8.
The program will also feature prayers, songs, and a candle lighting ceremony. The event is free and open to all freedom and peace-loving people, and will be simulcast online at http://www.JewishMiami.org/yomhashoah
O Miami Poetry Festival event at Urban Oasis Project’s Farmer’s Market
April is nearly over, but the monthlong celebration of poetry — the O Miami Poetry Festival is still being celebrated. One such celebration is being held Saturdays at Legion Park at the Urban Oasis Project’s Farmer’s Market.
On April 30, Michelle Lisa Polissaint, an artist who lives in Little Haiti, and who loves to create art that helps to bring communities together, will feature her embroidery project, where she will embroider poems on participants’ garments, blankets or pieces of cloth. It won’t be the first time that Polissaint will be doing a very different art project in which people in the community can participate.
Several years ago, as a part of the O Miami Poetry Festival, she and a fellow artist Najji Moon designed 1,000 umbrellas with an old Haitian proverb painted on them that read: “A leaky roof can fool the sun, but it can’t fool the rain.” Then, they passed out the colorful umbrellas to residents of Little Haiti. It was a way of bringing the community together, she said.
On Saturday, her latest embroidery project will also help to bring about that “community feeling”. It’s called, “Invisible Threads/Strong Ties.”
“I like to create community-based projects,” Polissiant said. “I moved to Miami 11 years ago from West Palm Beach. I was only 19. Since then, I’ve created a community for myself, and I’ve grown in many ways.”
She said the idea for her current project, is that people will be able to come to the market at Legion Park and pick excerpts from a selection of 16 poems. She will then embroider the poems on whatever piece of fabric or clothing the participant brings.
Polissaint was born and raised in Palm Beach. She said she came to Miami because she wanted to find her career as an artist. “I didn’t know if I wanted to be far away from home. So, someone suggested I move to Miami. I was only 19. It worked out well.” She lives in Little Haiti.
Another interesting art project will be that of Najji Moon, who was moved to do her project out of grief. Her project, “Portrait at 34,” honors her late cousin, the poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, who died when she was 34.
“Since her passing, one poem in particular has been a special source of comfort and connection for me — ‘Portrait at 34.’ To rediscover this poem while mourning my loss has encouraged me to do what I always assumed we would do when she was alive — collaborate.”
For her project, Moon has had a custom designed photo booth at the park, where participants can take a picture of themselves and then have it paired with an age-specific poem.
Saturday will be the final day of the O Miami Poet Festival Project. Legion Park is at 6447 NE Seventh Ave. It is free and open to the public.
Bea Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 2:17 PM.