17 AUGUST 1985, Page 26

Anniversaries

Now it is fifteen/twenty-five/fifty years (tick the applicable box) Since we were plundered/raped/tortured/burned Or otherwise maltreated (ring the relevant entry) And again we are remembered, And how we were starved, deported, shot down, gassed Or otherwise.

Old newsreels flicker in hearths and homes Where people are trying to eat their suppers Or otherwise lead their largely innocuous lives (Which their friends remember every twelvemonth).

Recalled at intervals of ten or twenty years, Lest we should be forgotten.

For people need to remember, Lest they forget what can always be done In the way of (fill in your preference) Because such things have happened before.

D. J. Enright