"In A Penitential Prayer, poet Gerald George confronts the endless pathos of the Holocaust, from the bewilderment of the first innocent victims, to the packed railroad cars carrying them on a one-way trip, to the hunger, stench, and illness of the camps themselves, in which one awakes each morning to the newly dead, to the cruelty of the guards, for whom a rifle butt to the head has become routine-all this George presents in language that is straightforward and unadorned, without once raising his voice to denounce or decry, aware undoubtedly that such abstract utterance would not likely be commensurate with its task; his task admirably performs, being to let the unspeakable speak for itself"-- Provided by publisher.