AN I wrote this for the Holocaust Memorial Day UK (27 January 2015) which is set to remember all who died in the concentration, and Death Camps during the Second World War, a total of 11 million, 1.1 million were children and 6 million were Jews.
Title: Keep the Memory Alive
Rating: T
Warning: Some quite traumatic circumstances mentioned, just to warn you :/
Disclaimer: ISDOM :(
I stare across the lake of Avalon, like I usually do in remembrance. However, this time, it's not about Arthur, not directly. I feel the tears pooling in my eyes as I study the string of numbers and letters tattooed on my left forearm. Usually, it's hidden beneath a strip of red cloth that symbolises Camelot. But not today. As I run my thumb over the daunting marks, I can remember when I got it done.
I was pinned down by two guards, whilst another defaces the pale skin below my wrist. I had glared at him defiantly, refusing to flinch at the pain, trying to block out the screams of men, women and children around me. They had taken all of my possessions and I was given a pair of breaches and some boots that are incredibly flimsy, as well as a thin, scratchy top. I'm shoved into a cabin, with a group of sixty or so other people. Not all of them made it. Some were sent to Auschwitz, whilst others died due to the terrible conditions. We were forced to work in all weathers, with hardly any food, and often got beaten if we collapsed whilst working from exhaustion. There was no dignity if you died here, mass burial graves for all, and if you lived, it was just as bad.
After a year, of hoping and praying that someone would save us from this hell – namely Arthur, I gave up hope, we all did.
Somehow we planned an escape, they had started the gas chambers after three years, thousands more died. We found an escape, me and Hank, and we planned it to perfection. We managed to get a good couple of hundred people out and away, across the border and safe. But it wasn't nearly enough. Still, thousands remained, and perished, but hundreds had lived. The guilt ate away at us all as we tried to rebuild our lives, glad when the war ended and the camps were shut down, and some at least were able to escape.
I've not dreamt since, the painful memories far too much to bear.
I watch the quiet calmness lake through tear filled eyes and wish again that I was back home with my friends and family.
"I thought Uther, and the Great Purge was bad back in the day" I mutter, breaking the serenity "I was so, so wrong. His cruelty to my kind didn't hold a candle to this" I inform the lakes inhabitants, not that the fish can hear or understand me.
Tears pour down my cheeks, unrelenting.
I morn for the thousands I failed to save.
Pulling my knees up to my chest,
I weep for what could have been prevented so easily
I morn for the life I could have had,
That the thousands could have had.
Wiping the tears from my face, I stand straight, tying the cloth firmly back over my wrist.
I cannot let it happen again.
Hope you enjoyed! Please R&R (Read and Review)
A massive thank you to everyone who reads the stuff I write, mostly its just my ramblings, but there we go :)Gingerwolf96
