.
Never Again
Never again, beneath the sun
Would mortal beings come undone.
A pledge arose and soared on high—
It warmed the heart and lit the sky
The day the force for freedom won.
Yet now cruel camps with state-forced gun
Are guarded by the soulless Hun
And nowhere do the valiant cry—
__Never again.
That promise sung for everyone
Who choked and starved and couldn’t run
From death is now a rasping sigh
On lips that sell a worn out lie:
A lie the devil’s often spun—
__Never again.
.
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Susan Jarvis Bryant is from Kent, England. She is now an American citizen living on the coastal plains of Texas. Susan has poetry published in the UK webzine, Lighten Up On Line, The Daily Mail, and Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets).
Susan, thank you for remembering this solemn day — one which has special poignancy for me. To visit the sites of concentration camps is a horrifying experience which, for me, has only been exceeded by visiting the heartbreaking Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. I don’t believe any nation since Nazi Germany has actually created a mechanized industry to exterminate a targeted people by the millions. But even with that said, genocides from China and Rwanda to Syria demonstrate that human beings are capable of a most heinous evil which must be spotlighted and stopped. Thank you for your fine poetry which has helped to shine that necessary light on a most horrific subject.
Brian, the deliberate and carefully planned starvation of 3.9 million Ukrainians in 1932-33, orchestrated by the Soviet Communists, was another politically driven attempt to exterminate an entire targeted group. This genocide is called the “Holomodor” by the Ukrainians. There also was the genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government in 1915 against their Armenian population, which resulted in the deaths of millions.
Both of these genocidal outrages have been conveniently forgotten by the current powers that be, because our left-wing masters don’t like to say anything against the horrors of Communism, and because it is considered bad form to mention the mass murder of Christians by a Moslem nation.
Still today, leftists will never allude to the Holomodor, and the Turks still refuse to admit that they murdered millions of peaceful Armenians.
Joseph, I’d heard of the Armenian genocide (without many details) but this is the first I’ve heard of the Holomodor. I’m sure your analysis of why these horrors have been suppressed is accurate. That being said, these are truly ghastly additional examples of the utter depravity humans are capable of and additional reasons to grieve. With all of the evil that people perpetrate I hope I can be excused for sometimes feeling that misanthropy is the only sane approach to life.
I simply had to shine a spotlight on the atrocities of the holocaust and the words said in its wake… words we’ve never been further from. The cruelty and the kindness of humankind never fails to surprise me. Today, it appears that cruelty is winning… we can’t let that happen. Keep calling out evil in poetry, Brian – I’m with you all the way!
Susan. You probably recall ‘The World at War’, a twenty-something part series on WWII, narrated by Lawrence Olivier. I still recall the episode on the Holocaust vividly, and just remembering it makes me shiver.
Thanks for the timely read.
Paul, yes, I do recall ‘The World at War’ – hard-hitting, eye-opening, and disturbing to the core. That’s why history should be kept alive. It should never have all traces removed by those who find it offensive. We can only say, ‘never again’ if we never forget. Comparisons are necessary. We can only secure a fair future if we look to the past for guidance… and that past is screaming from its grave to those treading the same path today.
It is easy to stand up against the atrocities of the past. I’m proud to be a member of a website that does not shrink from the atrocities that are happening NOW.
The Holocaust started with German soldiers writing slurs on Jewish shop owners’ windows with pieces of soap.
We have many examples of authoritarianism all over the world today.
There are countries that hold citizens in solitary confinement for over a year (and counting) for misdemeanors, at worst.
In the Mideast there is a country that will jail you for two years and fine you more than 50,000 dollars for mocking the government’s ham handed handling of the Covid “crisis.”
In China, if you don’t fit the CCP’s idea of an ideal citizen, not only will you be killed, but your organs will be sold to the highest bidder… yes many in the USA, Europe and the Mideast are walking around with the organs of Uighurs and Falun Gong in them.
If a recounting of atrocities of the past century brings shivers, then what should we feel about the ongoing atrocities in the USA, in China, in Australia, and in many other lands where authoritarianism has raised its ugly head once more?
Who are the new Jews?
Every single one of us who in some way, purposely or innocently, finds ourself inconvenient to the state… or to anyone well-connected enough to the state.
Is it time to stand up yet?
You, Susan Jarvis Bryant, have spoken eloquently.
You seem to assume I shiver and do nothing, Mike. That’s unnecessary and hurtful.
Paul, please accept my profoundest apologies for the harm I have visited on your person.
One is not supposed to say, “some of my best friends are Jews,” but as it happens, almost all of my best friends are Jews. That’s because I attended Wesleyan University, where roughly 1/3 of my freshman class was Jewish. Many of these persons had been denied admission to Ivy League schools, due to a quota system. That’s understandable, because if all admissions had been based on merit, then places like Harvard would have a student body that was mostly Ashkenazi Jews and east Asians. Diversity at all costs meant something back in those days other than what it has led to today. There were decades when I frequently wore the yarmulke, but nowadays I mostly wear a face mask.
CB, your comments about quotas and diversity are interesting. The modern BLM movement has as one of its goals the ending of “Jewish privilege.” (Speaking as a Jew, I’ve never been aware of receiving any such privilege; maybe I’ve just missed out.)
Presumably in the BLM’s scheme of things, very few Jews would be admitted to university, as we are such a small percentage of the population. That’s one reason why I adamantly refuse to “take the knee.”
But I’m digressing from Susan’s fine poem.
A poem that is both cleverly written and moving. And all too topical, alas. Well done, Susan.
Thank you very much, David. It called out to be written, and I would like to address your comment to C.B. I take your BLM point on board – how on earth can racism be eradicated when the organization calling for its demise is blatantly racist? I’ve just left my job because the organization (a church, no less!) I work for is treading the identity politics path… I refuse to take the knee, too!
Well said, Susan. (Of course, to add to the madness, we now have Whoopi Goldberg’s moronic comment that the Holocaust was “not about race.”) But as to churches, universities, etc, buying in to all this nonsense, I wonder if it is some kind of communicated insanity, or just plain cowardice.
The vast majority of mainline churches and universities are now totally controlled by the globalist Left. As I mentioned once in a post here at the SCP, I no longer have the stomach to talk to the priests of my own Roman Catholic religion, since blind obedience to left-liberal pieties seems to be the order of the day with most of them.
Joseph, Mike said to me that churches have become political and (in spite of his faith) should be avoided. I listened to him half-heartedly, and simply had to learn for myself (that’s the hard-headed woman I am). He is right and my heart hurts. I wanted the churches to remain full and alive with the Word. That “Word” has been twisted in ways I could never have imagined, and it has been used to the detriment of the congregation. I cannot and will not support this duplicity. I wanted the churches in Texas to survive. The majority of churches in the UK have died a horrible death… but, maybe that’s the way we need to go… maybe the death of the church is the path to truth and light. Maybe, we should look to the message of Jesus, which wasn’t vested in pastors that have houses paid for and salaries and perks that exceed those of the hardest working ordinary person. Maybe we need this awakening, and the world doesn’t need a secretary like me standing in the way of the truth. I’ve seen the light and I’m standing up for the truth and will continue to do so… I have faith in God. I don’t have faith in the corrupt churches that peddle political agendas in place of the scriptures.
Susan, you are a very brave woman.
Thank you.