Lieutenant Alex Colville was at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

The survivors' emaciated faces.
The dead, their bodies.
It haunted him, his work, for the rest of his life.

Remembering takes a toll.
Never forget.

You were there when we helped relieve our allies after Operation Market Garden.

"The war wasn’t melodramatic so much, as it was dogged persistence."

The freezing rain, melting snow.
The danger, lurking everywhere.

We see them through you, Alex.

“I felt my job was to simply report. I thought at least because no one was shooting at me, I could try and do reasonably good work.”

We still read your reports, Lieutenant Colville.

“What is the war all about? What is human existence all about? What’s important and what’s not important?”

It stays with you, the war.
It lingers and seeps.
It stays with you.

“Against a regiment I oppose a brain
And a dark horse against an armoured train.”

You carried it with you.
You knew the war lingers.
You knew the Holocaust lingers.

You saw. You reported.
You remembered.

Thank you, Alex Colville.