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| Detail showing the murderer now identified as Jackobus Omnen from the photograph known as "The Last Jew in Vinnitsa" Warning: Viewers will find the original photo at the link provided disturbing. |
At Last, a Name for the Murderer in a Holocaust Photo. —The New York Times, November 28, 2025
Now he has a name.
Or we have it—
Finally we know what to call the person
whose ennui pulled a trigger in front of:
one photographer
two dozen standing-bored
so many piled bodies
We learn this murderer
was once a school teacher
who still teaches though armed
with a different lesson
Jackobus Omnen
How pleasant to roll that
off history’s tongue
to store in the sepia of then
It’s a name full of roundness
like the anonymous circle
of witnesses
like the shallow pit where
a man sits on the edge
perpetually anticipating
the end
Chin raised
he watches us all
from the bottom
of a photograph
and waits to become the last.
Roselyn Kubek is a teacher and a New England poet whose work has been featured in a number of publications and venues including, most recently, Mass Poetry’s Hard Work of Hope series and the Maine Poets Epistolary Poetry Exchange.
