Anne Frank

Year 9 students were invited to take part in an in-school poetry competition based on the study of dramatic monologues. Ruby Neville was inspired by Anne Franks’ tragic story of hiding in an attic in Amsterdam to get away from the Nazis. This was also inspired by The Holocaust Memorial Day which the school marked on 27th January with a special assembly and work in history.

Since I have been trapped, isolated, I have not stopped longing To escape from your grasp, to flee from this room which is shrinking Slowly, enclosing me, circling me, surrounding me, my hands are pale And my face almost translucent, can’t you see you did this to me? You follow me everywhere I go, watching, I cannot breathe without you knowing, your ratting me out and I can’t get away, the days start Blurring as we sit and wait, wait for you to come for us, we hide in fear, Trembling at the slightest sound, can’t you see you did this to us? The people you seize we have never seen again, you lock them up. Imprisoned. You plan to take the life out of them, drive them to the edge So the innards of the scarred chambers seem to be the best option, The easiest way out of this hell, can’t you see you did this to them? The little Jewish boy you separated from his mother, Watched as his dad was flogged and sent to the chambers He watched as his father’s body was chucked onto a cart, lifeless, he watched as it was taken away, can’t you see you did this to him? If this is the end so let it be but yet what pleasure do you see in this? You watched as people were killed and forgotten and yet you didn’t care At all, we are all made in God’s own image we are all the same inside Yet I can’t fathom how you don’t know, how you don’t see, that You did this to us all.