PoetryABAnne Frank, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Belsen Concentration Camp, Yerushalyim

In Memory of Anne Frank ~ IHMD 27 January 2023

PoetryABAnne Frank, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Belsen Concentration Camp, Yerushalyim
In Memory of Anne Frank ~ IHMD 27 January 2023


International Holocaust Memorial Day 27 January 2023

IHMD 2023

Anne Frank

Rereading this after quite a long gap, the most unsettling thought is the act of betrayal. A person would almost have certainly known that it was just weeks away, the Liberation of Holland, and yet that person betrayed not only the Frank Family but also the People who dared to defy Occupation.

As I look afresh at the Diary of Anne Frank, this time round, I find myself thinking only of human nature.

Kenneth Thomas Webb
27 January 2023


I did not mean to go
and yet I knew deep down
I would

I had to leave my record
for I knew even then
that post war
the world might be
ensnared by denial

I did my best
to show unity of spirit
family love
and friendship
in the face of adversity

I knew we were in the dying
moments of a rabid dog
but it is in those moments
that all reason is lost

I died at Bergen-Belsen
You were almost there
But worry not
I was in the tender embrace
That took me beyond the veil

You see me smiling
Keep that in mind
An illustration of what came to me again
The other side of the veil

My spirit lives on
Remember my words
Visit my home
Stand in my room

And be strong and forgiving
And be ready to stand up...
We girls and women
are far stronger than is thought
That is a fact of history

Take courage from
Malala Yousafzai
We speak the same refrain
Do not give in

And as for Bergen Belsen
Remember this simple fact
For us it had become
A terrible way of life
But for our liberators
Many a soldier even now
Seventy years on
Is traumatised by what they saw

Shalom, Shalom
Next Year in Yerushalayim

With my Nieces Suzie and Caroline
keeping in mind your notes and conversations to me on your visit to Auschwitz
and a reminder of that fateful day seventy years ago today, 15th April 1945...

Freedom walked through the gates of hell in Bergen-Belsen
and vanquished evil in an instant,
and then sat down and cried,
and petitioned
that the like of this
would never happen again

21 January 2022
All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL

© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb


Composed 15 April 2015


Miss Anne Frank - image courtesy of The Telegraph, 15 April 2015
and all rights reserved to the
Anne Frank Foundation, UK

 

15 April 2015, 1.22 am ~ on seeing this image from Thomas G Ainsworth at 1 am