By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2025

In memory of the untold tens of thousands of
Jews deported from France to Nazi camps
during World War II; fewer than 3,000 survived.

Published in WestWard Quarterly Winter 2026 Issue

How stark the truth
that stood before me:
117 meters of memories
searing 200,000 rods of glass —
memories of Jewish lives
lit by an eternal flame,
illuminating the crypt
bearing the ashes
of an unknown deportee
entombed in cold, lifeless black,
colored only by a bouquet
of white tulips,
laid in broken beauty,
strewn across its face.

In the heart of the crypt,
engraved in bronze,
flashed burnished words
of unalterable truth,
lit by yet burning lives
so cruelly extinguished:

“They went to the other side of the Earth
but they did not return.”

I stared—silent and motionless —
bereft of everything —
naked, alone, trembling…
a kindred pierced soul
engulfed by their fire
and crushed by men’s weight.