The night was bitter cold,
Dogs howling all night.
Get ready young and old!
Begin your endless flight.
Children sensing alarm,
Knowing not what to fear,
Clinging to mother’s arm,
Whispering pleas in her ear.
It was the night they fled,
Never again to return
Enemy planes overhead,
Danger at every turn.
Displaced and deprived,
humiliated and beset,
Those who survived
Will never forget.
Erwin Schalm