THE LAST JEW IN VINNITSA

 by Roselyn Kubek


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. 

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