RED, GRAY, AND BLACK
from
TO BE AN ARTIST
A Musical Play in Two Acts
Words by Judith Weinshall Liberman
Music by Stephen Feig
Copyright © 2023 by Judith Weinshall Liberman

What color was the Holocaust?
How does an artist express the pain
Without words, without sounds,
Without an audible refrain?

First by red
For blood
And fire.
Red for
The blood
Of innocents.

Red for
The fire
That burned
So many,
Old and young,
Behind a barbed fence.

What color was the Holocaust?
How does an artist express the pain
Without words, without sounds,
Without an audible refrain?

Gray. Gray
For that
State of being
Between
Life
And death.

Gray for
The state
Of despair,
Of losing hope
And losing faith
And losing breath.

What color was the Holocaust?
How does an artist express the pain
Without words, without sounds,
Without an audible refrain?

Yes, black
For the absence
That prevailed.
Black for
The absence
Of love.

Black for
The lack
Of compassion,
The lack
Of God's mercy
From above.

Black for
The darkness
Of man's soul
As human beings
Were gassed
And burned

By fellow
Human
Beings
And into
Black smoke
Were turned.