Stolpersteine installation, Frankfurt, May, 2022
  
At the end of the ceremony,
the young schoolchildren
peel away from the crowd.
It looks like a movie
that begins in real time
but then I imagine
the time slows,
almost to a standstill:
The children are in school.
They’re learning about Hitler
and the camps.
They see pictures
and ask questions.
Kinder auch?[1]
 
The teacher tells them
about a Jewish family
who lived a few blocks away,
at Zeil 51—
a father, mother, two children.
Kristallnacht.
Dachau.
New York.
Stolpersteine.
 
Back in real time,
the children rush
to the stones
to drop roses
on the names
of my grandfather,
grandmother,
mother,
uncle.
 
One of them
struggles
to look up at me,
puzzled
by the weight
of remorse.
 
 


[1] Children too?