Analyzing Two Poems Phenomenon

¶ … fall among the literary forms of history preservation alongside songs and other literary work. They were and still are a means of conveying the emotions and reactions that one has towards a particular situation. For instance, some poems are currently focused on wars, which might or might not have occurred; it all relies on the poet's preference.

Other poems are quite simple and have dived deep into the subject of war, how it started, its causes, and the effects and repercussions of that particular battle whereas others seek to discuss means of avoiding wars. Hence, this paper shall briefly discuss the personal and collective responsibility in race torn Germany in World War Two. The poems, which were utilized for research on this topic were "Frozen Jews" by Avrom Sutzkever and "First they came .. " by Pastor Martin Nielmoller.

Historical Context During the World Wars, Germany had its portion of wins as well as downfalls as a nation. Being governed by one of the cruelest and contentious dictators, Adolf Hitler, Germany was perceived as a rival by several nations. During the first two years of World War Two, Hitler's objective of developing hegemony in Europe was successful. Following Poland's defeat, Hitler switched his focus westward within one month.

He perceived that it was important to conquer France and Britain before he could turn eastward to the territories, which were to turn into his new empire's "living space." Hitler took both Norway and Denmark in the course of just a few days in April, and he ambushed France, together with Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium. It was just the British that were a barrier to Hitler's path to complete triumph in the west (Geary). Nevertheless, Hitler permitted other matters to digress his goals.

He assisted Mussolini, his friend, in invading North Africa that was greatly under the British influence, sent Mussolini back up in the conquest of Greece, and initiated an operation in reprisal to the Yugoslav resistance. Hitler was in control of most of the European territory of the Soviet Union by the conclusion of 1941 although his plans for a fast defeat of the Soviet Union had not yet been recognized. However, with his triumphs on issue still remained, the Jews (Geary).

The Jews were viewed as a threat to the Germans that thought of themselves as pure Aryan race. Hate messages were spread regarding how they gained more from the economy than others and they had all the jobs. Hence, Nazi organizers came up with a detailed plan for the future re-organization of western Soviet Union and Eastern Europe that required the eradication and settlement of their territories by German overlords that would be in control and finally repopulate the region with Germans.

He was to carry on, the Holocaust, the mass Jews murder (Geary). According to Geary, deployment groups started gathering the Jews and shooting them by the thousands. It is approximated that some 6,000,000 were killed in the Eastern Europe death factories. At least 6,000,000 non-Jews died of hunger and murder in regions like Auschwitz that was the Polish Rail Junction, with the inclusion of 2.5 million Soviet war prisoners and numerous others from eastern European nationalities.

Domestic and International Response to the Holocaust The world watched with amazement and terror, the murder and deaths of the Jews in Germany and in other nations. It was made public all over the media and in newspapers as the rest of the world empathized with the Jews. Nonetheless, even after watching the killings that were conducted by the government of Hitler towards the Jews, what was being done? The poems by Martin Nielmoller and Avrom Sutzkever are best examples of the condition in Germany in World War Two.

The first line of Frozen Jews demonstrates the maltreatment of the Jews in that period that finally resulted to their untimely death. In addition, Niemoller's poem shows the unresponsive nature of some of the individuals that saw what happened to the Jews. Hence, this section not only handles the responsibility that the international community has towards the predicament of the Jews, but also the German individuals too.

Gleason mentions that over the precedent years, there arose the concern that since the United States did not succeed in bombing the concentration camps of the Germans, it carries an important share of the blame for the Holocaust. There exist those that maintain that American officials knew about the crimes of Hitler during the battle, however, purposely chose not.