Bergen-Belsen<\/strong><\/p>\n Oerbke<\/strong><\/p>\n Culled from: Bergen-Belsen<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE DREADFUL STORY OF PAULINE AND THE MATCHES<\/strong><\/p>\n Mamma and Nurse went out one day When Minz and Maunz, the pussy-cats, heard this But Pauline would not take advice, When Minz and Maunz, the little cats, saw this, Now see! oh! see, what a dreadful thing Then how the pussy-cats did mew, So she was burnt with all her clothes And when the good cats sat beside This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the\u00a0archived version<\/a>\u00a0for all entries up until now).<\/p>\n Here\u2019s today\u2019s entry:<\/p>\n September 8th.\u00a0 <\/b>Cloudy. Mosquitoes troublesome. Several detachments left during the night, and a large number to-day. Rations of raw meal and beans.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/wdt-427.jpg\")
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\nThe bodies were lined up on the “bier square” near the POW hospital, where they were undressed before the prisoners on burial detail took them to the cemetery.\u00a0 (Photographer unknown)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
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\nPhotographer unknown, from the collection of Wehrmacht soldier Josef Landgraf<\/em><\/p>\nWietzendorf<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nPhotographer unknown, from the collection of Wehrmacht officer Heinz Dietrich Meyer<\/em><\/p>\nArcane Excerpts: Pauline and the Matches<\/h3>\n
\nAnd left Pauline alone at play;
\nAround the room she gayly sprung,
\nClapp’d her hands, and danced, and sung.
\nNow, on the table close at hand,
\nA box of matches chanc’d to stand,
\nAnd kind Mamma and Nurse had told her
\nThat if she touch’d them they would scald her;
\nBut Pauline said, “Oh, what a pity!
\nFor, when they burn, it is so pretty;
\nThey crackle so, and spit, and flame;
\nAnd Mamma often burns the same.
\nI’ll just light a match or two
\nAs I have often seen my mother do.”<\/p>\n
\nThey held up their paws and began to hiss.
\n“Me-ow!” they said, “me-ow, me-o!
\nYou’ll burn to death, if you do so,
\nYou parents have forbidden you, you know.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nShe lit a match, it was so nice!
\nIt crackled so, it burn’d so clear,\u2014
\nExactly like the picture here.
\nShe jump’d for joy and ran about,
\nAnd was too pleas’d to put it out.<\/p>\n
\nThey said, “Oh, naughty, naughty Miss!”
\nAnd stretch’d their claws,
\nAnd rais’d their paws;
\n“‘Tis very, very wrong, you know;
\nMe-ow, me-o, me-ow, me-o!
\nYou will be burnt if you do so,
\nYour mother had forbidden you,\u00a0 you know.”<\/p>\n
\nThe fire has caught her apron-string;
\nHer apron burns, her arms, her hair;
\nShe burns all over, everywhere.<\/p>\n
\nWhat else, poor pussies, could they do?
\nThey scream’d for help, ’twas all in vain,
\nSo then, they said, “We’ll scream again.
\nMake haste, make haste! me-ow! me-o!
\nShe’ll burn to death,\u2014we told her so.”<\/p>\n
\nAnd arms and hands, and eyes and nose;
\nTill she had nothing more to lose
\nExcept her little scarlet shoes;
\nAnd nothing else but these was found
\nAmong her ashes on the ground.<\/p>\n
\nThe smoking ashes, how they cried!
\n“Me-ow, me-0! Me-ow, me-oo!
\nWhat will Mamma and Nursy do?”
\nTheir tears ran down their cheeks so fast,
\nThey made a little pond at last.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nAndersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!<\/h3>\n