At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 WW1 ended.

Twenty years later, almost to that day, the Nazis unleashed the Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany and Austria, and The Holocaust against the Jews began.

Less than a year after that, WW2 broke out and owing to the bravery of multitudes across land, sea and air, including Australian soldiers whom the Germans would call “The Rats of Tobruk”, the Nazis were stopped in the deserts of Libya in 1941—they never took the Middle East—and four years later with the death of Hitler, The Holocaust would end too after six million Jews were killed and seventy million others died as combatants and civilians.

Think about those numbers.

When we say “Lest We Forget” at 11am November 11, we mean just that: Never forget the sacrifices made to end tyranny.

But we always do—forget.

Today Iraq announced that nine-year old girls can marry Islamist extremists. In Iran women are being beaten by Islamist extremists for showing their hair. In Afghanistan women are forbidden by Islamist extremists to talk in their homes. In Sudan Muslim women are being raped by Islamist extremists. In Mali and Nigeria Christian women are being raped by Islamist extremists. In Bangladesh Hindu women are being raped by Islamist extremists. In Israel women of many faiths were raped then killed on October 7 2023 by Islamist extremists and of 101 hostages still missing after being taken to Gaza by Islamist extremists it was estimated today that only twenty (20) may still be alive.

Jews, Christians, Hindus and Muslims live side-by-side as citizens in Israel yet Islamist extremists in the West are telling us that there is a “genocide” being waged by Israel in Gaza?

Sadly, we have forgotten. We have forgotten the evil of hate, the evil of lies, the evil of greed, the evil of corruption. We have forgotten the evil that comes when the rule of law is set aside, and the Brown Shirts arrive to wave off the police. We have forgotten the sanctity of meaning and the abuse of words.

So, on November 11 this year let us try to remember, yet again, the lessons of those who sacrificed to end true tyranny that they who did shall not have died in vain.

That the evil of warlords shall be banished from this earth. That the tolerance of others shall become our global religion. That the celebration of our differences shall light up our decades ahead.

© 2024 Adam Parker.

Picture credit: A book of six million words all the same. © 2013 “And Every Single One Was Someone”, by Phil Chernofsky. Published by Gefen Books, author’s copy.