Arnulf Overland
June 3rd, 2005
“Mr. Moose” put me on the trail of “Wergeland’s Children – Jewish Life in Norway,” a photo exibition that’s now touring in Norway and the U.S., which lead me to Arnulf Overland, Norwegian poet who wrote “Dare not to sleep” during World War II, excerpted here from a opening speech at the exibition opening by Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Minister of International Development, Norway:
How dare you endure, sitting smug in your home
Saying: Sorry, so sad, poor they are, and alone
You cannot allow it! You dare not, at all.
Accepting the outrage that on all else may fall.
I cry with the final gasps of my breath
You dare not be seated, nor stand and forget.
After the Nazi invasion and occupation of Norway, Overland was arrested and sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
Variations on the “stand up, keep fighting” theme…
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