There is hardly anything good to say about the Nazis and their reign of terror during World War II. The Nazis were effective and efficient killing machines, and it did not matter if the victim was young or old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, if they were in the way of the Nazis, they were eliminated. Most literature depicts the Nazis as exceptionally cruel and heartless, and this poem is no exception. Who kills a child simply for laughing? A Nazi, that's who. In fact, in most literature, there is hardly anything good to say about war. There is a long tradition of writing about the causes and effects of war, and most of the literature is graphic and horrific in nature. It depicts the worst parts of war, and depicts it graphically because writers what their readers to share in the feelings and desires of their characters. Even the war literature and media that is humorous (such as M*a*S*H), have their dark sides, and show the backside of war, where the injured go and how many do not make it. War is not pretty, and the literature about war illustrates that graphically and well. There is nothing pretty about a child gunned down by a much more powerful (and responsible) adult. It is simply the power of one pitted against the power of another. The Nazis were certainly powerful,...

They were evil, and this poem paints them just that way. Just as the poem uses contrasts between the natural world and the unnatural world of the Nazis, the poem contrasts the innocence of a child with the arrogance of a Nazi with a machine gun. The child is harmless, and the Nazi is not. The Nazi is aware of his power, and is not afraid to use it on anyone who challenges him, even a child. Again, this indicates the powerful are those who win at war. Ultimately, the Nazis lost the war because, powerful as they were, they were not as powerful as the Allied forces that marched against them. This is another lesson about war that most literature explores. Power is the ultimate goal in war, and the ultimate winner in war. Military might is part of this power, but so are sheer numbers and armaments. Those who have the most win, and those who do not, lose. War is that simple, and that makes it all the more frightening and dark.
In conclusion, war is horrible, and this poem shows it at its' very worst. War is indiscriminate, and kills without mercy. War is mankind at its' most evil, and this poem illustrates the worst part of war, when the innocent die.

Traditionally, literature about war illustrates the difficulties and casualties of war, and the horrors war creates. It also illustrates that there are always survivors, and they must go on living. That is unwritten but understood in this poem. Claudio will not go on, but there are survivors left behind who must continue on without their loved one. This is perhaps the ultimate cruelty of war that literature struggles to illustrate. There are always survivors, and they pay a heavy price. They live, but their lives are shattered and their loved ones will never come back.