# Never again?

*We're learning from the past in issue #294 of your weekly poetry shot*

By [trpplffct](https://paragraph.com/@trpplffct) · 2026-05-08

neveragain, poetry, worldwar2, victoryday, humanity

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> _Second World War_  
> _victory day_  
> _and still "never_  
> _again" is a_  
> _promise we_  
> _haven't been able to keep._

Today, May 8, is in some places WWII Victory Day. It's something I had to get used to, because in The Netherlands we are celebrating Liberation Day on 5 May, whilst our Remembrance Day is on May the 4th.

As we are celebrating the end of WWII this week, there is one thing that keeps bothering me. Eighty-one years ago, we told ourselves, as humanity: "Never Again". But look at where we are now. The wars raging and war crimes committed have maybe never been as multitudinous as they are in 2026.

So this week, think about that. And how you can help to let us finally deliver on that promise of "Never Again".

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/cbedcd8c7d9d1ad82735fc625996bd9d726e4caae90a91a7e44c1ae9be6d5075.png)

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[

Arjan Tupan is writing poetry, podcasting and incubating empathy
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Entrepreneur, dad, European, story teller, poet. Curious, too. I tell stories on different platform and using a variety of tools. Sometimes I explain how I do stuff.Most of my content is free of charg

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### Poésie de la vie

Visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp thirteen years ago made a great impact. One of the things was standing in front of a building where people from my hometown were kept. People of all ages. People, had I lived then, who could have been my class mates, teachers, friends. I made a short video about that, then.

[![](https://paragraph.com/editor/youtube/play.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPe9yLxgpM)

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*Originally published on [trpplffct](https://paragraph.com/@trpplffct/never-again)*