Janeczko Collection: Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Janeczko, Paul B. (2011). Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763647278

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

What is there to write about this collection? Moving. Eye-opening. Sickening. Paul B. Janeczko aims straight for the heart with his memorial to the lives lived and lost in the Terezin Ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto is a fictitious collection of poems describing very real events that occurred during the early 1940s.

Each poem is given the voice of a person—most of which created by Janeczko—who was destined to live or work in Terezin. The sound and rhythm of the poems vary as much as the topic and emotion shared in each poem. Most poems, a couple pages in length, feature short, intentional lines of verse—few words that pack an emotional punch. Others offer more prose-like details. The detail in which the poems are written cause the reader the see, hear, and smell the area where the writers are coming from.

Any reader who finds interest in knowing the many sides of the Holocaust will appreciate the multiplicity of this book. Poems are told from the points of view of prisoners who recall losing family, friends, and freedom. Soldiers’ brainwashing is accounted for as they pretend to treat the Jews humanely. Little girls who one by one see their friends die. Citizens who watch their town transform into a tangible form of hell.

The short, emotion-filled poems will keep readers’ attention. The topic is one that piques the curiosity of young adults due to its incredible and almost unreal nature. While mostly imagined, Janeczko causes the stories of Terezin to come to life, enriching readers’ knowledge about the true events of the Holocaust.

From an artistic perspective, readers will appreciate the vast differences in each poem—although most are written in free verse. The variety of line length and tone will stimulate the readers’ emotions—allowing them to feel the sorrow, the anger, the pain felt by these innocent people.

The quality of the poems is astounding. Had Janeczko not mentioned his creation of most characters, this reader would have believed each piece to be complete fact. The author cites his research, as is protocol, but truly proves how well researched this topic is by the detail supplied in each verse.

Embedded between every few poems are sketches and prints from various sources (noted at the end of the book) that complement both the events described and the raw emotion sensed in the poems.

The arrangement of the poems allow the reader to understand the seriousness of the book—formal non-whimsical font is used, spacing is appropriate in that one person’s account is given all the needed space without being crowded by another’s.

The author includes a table of contents with the title (the character’s name and, when applicable, number) and page number. At the end of the book, an afterword gives a bit more background information about the nature of the Terezin Ghetto. Following the afterword is a note from the author and a list of his resources. In aid to the reader, a short list of foreign words used in the poems are translated.

This collection of fictionalized accounts of this part of the Holocaust can easily be placed in comparison with other notable Holocaust books such as Number the Stars, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Hitler Youth. Janeczko truly captured all that became the Terezin Ghetto.

POETRY SPOTLIGHT

In my opinion, one of the most moving poems is called “Josefine Rabsky/10890”. In this poem, Josephine lists one by one the friends she has lost in Terezin due to transport, illness, or suicide.

“Josefine Rabsky/10890”

My friends are lost.

Sarah wanted to marry a rich doctor

who would buy her flowers

and chocolates

and otherwise pamper her shamelessly

until her dying day.

Transport 5712.

Zofia and I slept outside whenever

it was allowed

holding hands

counting stars

until we fell asleep.

Transport 2174.

Anna, always serious,

gave me the rag doll

her mama had made.

“You need it,” she said.

“I’m leaving.”

Transport 1753.

Olga stopped eating

the day after her parents died of typhus.

Just stopped

and became a sacred sack of sticks

that I bore in my arms

to the hearse.

Kamila, with emerald eyes,

so happy,

happy she wasn’t going

to be separated from her parents.

Transport 6714.

Dorcas adored her uncle

followed him

from a fourth-floor window

to the cobbled courtyard.

Jolanta left in winter.

I watched her footprints

fill with snow.

Transport 1175.

I am lost.

I will leave my rag doll.

Transport 9177.

A dramatic interpretation of this poem seems most appropriate as a way to share the poem and introduce the book. One reader (reading as if she was Josefine) will read the poem. To set the stage, lights will be out, save for one spotlight (flashlight) always on the reader and one light that will shine on each of the featured friends as her story is told. As each girl’s stanza ends, the light turns off of her then comes back on, shining on the next girl. At the very last stanza, the only light shining will be the reader’s, which will turn off when she finishes the final line.

To add an element of authenticity, each friend should have a costume or prop that fits Josefine’s description of her.

Because of the emotional impact of the poems in this book, an appropriate follow-up activity would be an expressive watercolor illustration. Students will paint what they feel as they hear the poem read and reread. If they wish to paint the individual girls, that is acceptable; colors that represent the reader’s or their own emotions; any reflective illustration that students are able to describe at its completion.