Short Stories

The Ballad Of The Jews

It was a cold black night,

The moors as black as ink,

Darkness crept over the house,

Too dark for her to think.

The synagogue came ever closer,

The family walked to it,

Two girls, a boy, a mother, a father,

And five candles were lit.

They lived on a farm in Poland,

The girls were Rachel and Ruth,

They had a brother called Felix,

Their parents fixing the roof.

The Germans had bombed them,

The war was final,

They knew it was coming,

But their father was in denial.

The Jews all had to leave,

Or they would be shot,

The mother and father went away,

But the children were forgot.

The children heard two gun shots,

They grabbed what they could,

They knew what had happened,

They ran and they knew they should.

They ran as far as they could,

But it was not far enough,

They heard the wheels of a truck,

But they did not give up,

They ducked behind some bushes,

And at last the truck went away,

They crept out at last and ran,

They ran until it was day.

They had to leave the country,

They had to be free,

They ran to a farm house,

‘We will be safe, you will see.’

The boy was ill and they knew it,

There was nothing they could do,

They had to find some medicine,

So Rachel grabbed her shoes.

They waited an hour,

It felt like a week,

Rachel was not coming back,

And Felix was looking weak.

A man came into the barn,

They looked at Felix and said,

‘Bring him into the house,

He needs medicine and to be fed.’

Felix was better,

They went into town,

And hung from the gallows,

Rachel was what they found.

They ran back to the farm,

They gathered their stuff,

They had to get away,

They had money but not enough.

The man gave them some more,

They gathered up their coats,

They bought tickets to England,

They got on the boat.

The synagogue came ever closer,

The children walked to it,

One girl, one boy,

And two candles were lit.

They had got to England,

And it was all ok,

They had a new family,

But the memories never fade