Melissa Jones, Grade 10
Acaciawood College Preparatory Academy, Anaheim
Second Place, High School Poetry

One Country, Many Heroes

An act of bravery, courage, and patriotism,
Not one man, but many.
They stood for what they knew was right,
And did not fear Nazi terror.

They rose up as one.
A nation, unified; harmonious,
Zealously working to protect their Jews,
And keep them from becoming Nazi prey.

Carefully, methodically, they harbored all their Jews.
Privately, secretly, taken to the coast,
They slipped away like grains of sand,
Sifting out of the Nazis’ grasping talons.

To the shores of Sweden, where the hawk didn’t haunt,
Flotillas of small fishing boats delivered Jews to the sanctuary,
Tucked away from piercing, carnivorous eyes.
The soft, lapping water of the Baltic ferried them to safekeeping.

To be like these people, sacrificing everything for their countrymen,
Is heroic in itself.
They did not submit to tyranny.
Nearly all the Danish Jews, more than 7,200 of them, were saved.

I am inspired by these people of Denmark.
I strive to stand up for what is right.
I know a hero is not born immediately,
But cultivated little by little, with unwavering, resolute steps.
Uniting with my countrymen in trying times, to do what conscience requires,
I, too, can become a valiant, undaunted hero.

They were the individual country that stood up for their countrymen.
Individual spirits came together as one to rescue their Jews.
These individual decisions impacted a nation.
The Danes were a united hero.
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