OLD GERTRUDE

Old Gertrude hangs her head and hides her eyes
A tear rolls down her cheek; it's no surprise
Though it happened more than seventy years ago
Sometimes it's just too fresh and the tears just flow

The pounding woke them up at four a.m.
Ten soldiers broke the door. They'd come for them
Three little girls-- one three, one four, one ten
Who'd never see their parents alive again

They took the girls from home -- they wore no shoes
No coats, no warmth... you see, the girls were Jews
Pushed on a train... With strangers they did ride
And they were beaten if they broke down and cried

Into the camp they marched, their toes were frozen
Not ever knowing why they had been chosen
Thin gruel was what they ate when they were lucky
Three years thus they survived... yes, they were plucky

Others had been worked to death, or worse
Their captors were so evil and perverse
The showers weren't for cleansing, only death
The place where one would take one's final breath

But one gray day, the gates were thrown ajar
By soldiers who had traveled from afar
Gertrude and her sisters, orphans three
Were taken to a land across the sea

Into this land of liberty they came
New freedom. Nothing would ever be the same
A family took them in. They went to school
And learned that education is a tool

They married. They raised children and they grew
To love this land where it's no sin to be a Jew
But never will the memories they hold
Be forgotten. The stories must be told

And so today old Gertrude tells the tale
Of how she came to be here, her travail
And though her tears still flow, her heart is healed
For love and freedom here have been her shield.