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Don't Cry, Mommy Dear

Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides

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Don’t Cry, Mommy Dear                                      27 February 1944

Mother, is it already time for me to die?
I heard the doctor say so, I really did.
Mother, please don’t cry like that.
It is so beautiful up there in heaven
All of us together again in the end.

Mother, what will my little sister say
Later when she wants to play with me?
Mother, please don’t cry like that.
You know I am going up to Father
He has been there for ages.

Will you take good care of the pussy cat?
The poor dear is very fond of me
Mother, please don’t cry like that.
Do you love me to the moon and back?
Are you still with me, Mommy dear!

The worst part, you know, Mommy
Is that I will be without you for so long.
Mother, please don’t cry like that.
There has got to be a window up there
So I can look down on you.

Hold my hand for a second, will you?
It is so foggy here in the room.
Mother, please don’t cry like that.
Mommy … you know … Mommy … Mommy
Give me just one more little farewell kiss.                           

                                                Heinz Geiringer  (translated by Sheila Gogol)

Questions for Discussion:

1.       How does this poem make you feel? Why?

2.       Who is the speaker of this poem and what type of person is he?

3.       What is Heinz’s attitude (tone) about the subject to which he is speaking?

4.       What is Heinz’s mood (overall feeling about this subject matter)?

5.       What connections to the poem can you make to other texts, like The Diary of Anne Frank?

6.       What is the best line in the poem and why do you feel that way?

7.       Define historical happenings of the time that would allow him to  think this way.

8.       What is Heinz questioning in this poem?

9.      What does the terminal line of the poem tell us?