Shemà
I am Rosa Giulia Novi (III G).
During our English lessons with Teacher Maria Linda Viola we read and talked about Shoah.
We read the story of Anne Frank and her family and we studied the poem “Shemà” from the book “ If this is a man” written by Primo Levi who survived to the Holocaust.
The poem is entitled “Shemà”, this Jewish word means “Listen” and it is the beginning of the leading Jewish prayer.
So the author wants we all to listen to his words. It is a prayer, it is an obligation not a real curse.
He pleads us to remember, he asks the world to know the horror, to remember the sufferings and sorrow, to know History.
This poem shouts: “NEVER FORGET!”. This is the only way to avoid these horrors may happen in the future.
It’s so hard the comparison between life in the concentration camp and everyday life.
We are really lucky for so many things and too often we forget it.
It’s so great the horror he tells and so great the pain you feel reading the poem, and realize howmorally bad a man can be and cruel and cold-hearted.
Time may fading memories and that is our Duty to remember, to avoid the repetition of such mistakes.
