Compassion by Michael Rosen

I read an article
about the train
that took my great-uncle and my great-aunt
Jeschie and Rachel to Auschwitz:
Convoy 62.
The article said
that some of the prisoners on Convoy 62
escaped from the train
while it was in a tunnel

One of the prisoners was called 
Oscar Handschuh

and when he jumped from the train 
he knocked himself out.

After a bit, he came round and headed off 
into the countryside.

He arrived at a farm and asked for help. 
The people there were called

Mariette and Marcel Médard.

They bandaged his head, gave him clothing 
and food and hid him in an attic.

That day, German soldiers came to the farm.

They said they were looking for ten Jews 
who had jumped from a train.

Marcel Médard said that there was no one 
in the house.

A long while later, the war ended -

and for many years the Handschuh family stayed 
in touch with the Médard family.

Why?
Because Oscar Handschuh knew,

and the Médard family knew

that if Oscar Handschuh had been found by the 
soldiers that day,

he would have been killed,

and the Médard family would have been killed. 

All of them.