Maddie Hager won Honorable Mention in the Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Writing Contest through the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center.  This year’s topic was about how learning about the Holocaust can help us understand current day problems of prejudice, bullying, and hatred.  She’ll be receiving her honors at a virtual ceremony honoring Yom HaShoah on April 11th. She has written a poem and here it is,

Change

When we think of the Holocaust

We think of the past

We think how bad it was

But that could never happen now.

Right?

We think of people being put down

Oppressed for who they were born as

Told they were inferior with just a glance

Deemed unworthy of being alive

Treated like animals

Put in camps

Where they had to fight every day to even survive

Yet everyday we see the bullying and bigotry

Prejudices and racism

Whether it’s in ghettos or the school hallway

It’s always there

When someones harassed simply for the skin they wear

When someone treats you unkind

Because they simply can’t get out of their prejudice state of mind

Even though they don’t even know your name

When they hate you for not being strong or tall or skinny enough

To fit society’s preferences for who you should be

Because if you’re not you’re unworthy in their eyes

While it may have been more clear in that past

It’s still here

That’s why everyday people march and pray

Protest and riot

Fighting every single day until they can finally say

The way we live has changed