a child's war

A child's war suddenly, there was a war people drew the curtains called " blinds" the boy had no idea what was going on only there was a fear in the air the next thing he knew, he sat in a basement as fingers of light clawed the night A long bus ride out of town, his mother was not with him, he didn't ask why. A big farmhouse near a German camp The soldiers loved him and let him sit on their big horses Then it was all over, not knowing why back with his mother, who was busy walking in a factory, most of the time, he walked alone and witnessed the men he knew dragged women out of their houses to the police station and had their hair shorn, they were raped by angry men Raped, not what he knew what the meant. Nein, he said, those people are not nice like my friends, the soldiers. what one's experience as a child is not forgotten it pained me to see Germany suffering from self-imposed guilt after the war not speaking up when Israel behaved in a way that even tops the Nazi's atrocities  Europe needs Germany, an industrial and cultural nation finding her place again