Lest We Forget 🙏🌹

Published for November 11th, 2019 by Don Anderson

Grateful to those who gave their lives for our freedom.
​
Dr. Tom Matthews, the Headmaster, told several stories of WWII during the Remembrance Day service today at St. George's School in Vancouver.

Tom shared the successful service of Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz who is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews in Budapest, Hungary; the largest rescue operation of Jews during the Second World War.

Not a dry eye in the house as his voice choked a bit with the sentiment.

Conversation in my home then found the remarkable story of Irena Sandler who used barking German Shepherds to cover any sounds of the 2,500 children whom she smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto in the back of her truck.

​Lest We Forget. 

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'God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Before the term was used in reference to soldiers and war, "lest we forget" was first used in this 1897 Christian poem written by Rudyard Kipling called "Recessional". The phrase occurs eight times; and is repeated at the end of the first four stanzas in order to add particular emphasis regarding the dangers of failing to remember.