About the Author

James E. White, Jr.

A black American man who grew up in Memphis and Detroit may seem an unlikely author of poetry about the Holocaust. But James White, Jr. also grew up during the Civil Rights movement, met such figures as Alex Haley and Rosa Parks, and the injustices of slavery and segregation impacted him greatly. When he learned about Hitler and the Holocaust he was motivated to do more research, and was eventually compelled to write down his feelings.

“My writings are also a product of the knowledge that I have gained through having close friendships with Holocaust survivors and their family members. There aren’t enough ways to express the hurt they feel from losing a generation of friends and loved ones. It was my desire to illustrate not only the tragedy of a people, but also what survivors and their families had prior to the Holocaust. The abundance of love between women and men, the joys of raising children, the prosperity gained in business and careers, and the desire to make a contribution to the world itself. This book of poems, I felt, was the very least that I could do, in memory of all the fallen ones.”
– James E. White, Jr.