In front of the soldiers they stood,

a mother and daughter in rags.

The soldiers came to take the girl,

to the gas chambers for a shower. 

The mother’s heart stopped,

started pleading to the men,

but they ignored her

and grabbed the girl instead.

The mother lunged forward,

tried to free her little one,

and for it received a knock to the head.

The girl is crying now,

trying to go to help her mother:

to shield her, to hug her, to love her.

While being dragged away by the men,

she far too weak to win. 

From the mother came a scream,

and she found the strength to break free,

and she started towards her little girl.

Their eyes met,

mother and daughter,

glimmering of love and hopes and dreams and

of a peace that could have been.

But shattered in a second,

when two gunshots filled the air,

and the mother lay dead,

under her daughter's tear-shocked stare.