I’m not sure exactly when I realized my parents were born just a year after Anne Frank.

History can be confusing that way. World War II and the Holocaust seemed so long ago and far away when we studied it in high school. In actuality, only three decades had passed.

As saber rattling sets the world on edge once again, I came across a journal Mom kept from 1944 through 1948, her high school years.

In total, 65 poems.

Here is what she wrote on June 6, 1944, when she was just 14 years old:

History in the Making

It’s come! It’s happened! The D-Day is here,
The shelling and sorrow will soon seem so clear;
War pounced like a demon on far-away folk –
Who then had to bear the dread Nazi’s joke
’til the Allies came over to lift up the yoke.

Humanity’s future is freedom at stake,
It depends on the movements the generals make,
The paratroops landed while fighters zoom high
To battle resistance if out of the sky –
And the barges sped forward, men ready to die.

France was the target, the Normandy coast,
Men swarmed the objective, each staunch at his post,
And a seagull screamed over, it knew what was meant –
Why the troops, the equipment, and ships had been sent,
To a far scene of battle where hatred was spent.

Onward to victory! Forward they go!
Though the way may be bloody and tedious and slow,
Forging the rivers and ploughing through sod –
At length Allied forces will conquer each odd,
And the world will repent and beg pardon from God.

~ Joan Cassidy, age 14, 6 June 1944

Anne Frank was still in hiding when Mom wrote that poem in her journal. Nearly 80 years later, a new generation worries and waits.

“History in the Making” © 1944 Joan Cassidy Vayo. All rights reserved.

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