He lost all his family
In the Holocaust
Parents siblings cousins
Everyone was lost
Murdered by the Germans
Nazi hating Jew
Jan was left with nothing
What was he to do?
He fought for home and country
Charged a machine gun nest
On the German border
Medal on his chest
Changed his name found a wife
Made a family
Replacing the one that he had lost
Back in the old country
Completely independent man
Couldn’t work with men
Found them too independent
Like himself I reckon
His daughter said about him
It was her father’s creed
Everyone must fend for self
A sad belief indeed
Brian Fahy
8 April 2022
+ I watched a programme about Robert Maxwell last night. Fascinating how the key to our personality is often to be found in our childhood and youth. Losing his entire family to the Holocaust pitted Maxwell on his own against the cruel world. His independent determination to succeed often displayed itself in bullying of his own children as well as the wider world. If war had not happened how different life would have been for Jan Ludvik Hyman Binyamin Hoch. (1923-1991)
Erris Poetry 