Holocaust, AntisemitismABJanuary 27, 2025Anne Frank, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Belsen Concentration Camp, Yerushalyim

In Memory of Anne Frank 2025

Holocaust, AntisemitismABJanuary 27, 2025Anne Frank, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Belsen Concentration Camp, Yerushalyim

This tribute is from IHMD 2015.

In this Eightieth Year, it is not right that I should write anything about the incredibly moving events today, 27 January 2025, at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

International Holocaust Memorial Day 27 January 2015

IHMD 2015

Anne Frank

Rereading this seven years on, 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 the 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 2022

From IHMD 2015

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 comforted,
I was not alone.

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

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

Be strong and forgiving
Be ready to stand up...
We girls and women
are far stronger than is thought.
That is the 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
They are traumatised by what they saw.

Shalom, Shalom
Next Year in Yerushalayim

With my Nieces Suzie and Caroline
keeping in mind your notes and conversations with 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.

Composed 15 April 2015 for

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