Armistice, 11th November, 2018

It is with feeling that I reflect on this moment in history.  With my own health in question, I think of the millions (hell, can we ever forgive ourselves?) who died in that terrible war from 1914 – 1918.  I think of the humiliation of Germany by the smug victors and the revenge exacted for this, a little over 20 years later.  In 1919, two South Africans, Smuts and Botha, warned the League of Nations about their course of action.  This was ignored.

In the first 33 years of the 20^th-century there were more war casualties than in the rest of human history.  The next world war, worse than all wars, was to come.  What are we?

While I have been blessed with no war in my life, my father was in the Second World War.  Claudie’s father was in both wars.

Recently, on Facebook, a past student, probably from 40 years ago, remembers me reading to the class Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est, probably written in his last year before he died in the trenches.  I remember apologizing to the students that I would not read this well.  I almost choked over the last lines and the class stared at me in silence.

 

© Will van der Walt

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

Scheduled for 11^th November, 2018, at 11:11

 

Images

Casualties – Pinterest

Wilfred Owen – Academy of American Poets (Note that Owen was British)

Verdun – The Straits Times

 

                               “And at the going down of the sun,

                               And in the morning,

                               We will remember them

                               Those names who lie in our hall.”

                                                      Sappers Rus, Magaliesberg, South Africa