Holocaust Poetry #2

Homeland
Lois E. Olena
It was Christmas eve
and there was no room in the inn,
the Oswiecim inn,
so the Arrow Cross
took the children,
barefooted
and in their nighties,
out to the Danube
and filled their little bellies
not with bread
but bullets
flipping them
like tiddlywinks
into the congealing, icy river below.

It was the Red Danube
that night,
choking on the blood
of orphan Jews
whose little Blue faces
floated downstream
touring even all of Europe
until they washed up
on the shores of Eretz Yisrael (Jewish homeland)
and came back to life,
their little blue and white
bodies
raised high,
flapping in the wind.
How is imagery used in this poem?
It's a nice Christmas day, there are children going to an inn and when they get there they are taken away, shot and thrown into the river. Then they are brought to life once they reach their homeland. The author turns a nice peaceful image into one of horror. It's showed the extremes that the Germans would go to to kill innocent Jews.
Discuss the effect of the simile in this poem.
The simile is "like tiddlywinks". It compares the Germans killing to a child's game. It also makes the Germans seem strong and the Jew look weak
How is alliteration used in the poem? What is the effect?
"Not bullets but bread". This uses juxtaposition by putting bread next to bullets
How does the author juxtapose the innocence of the children to the cruelty they experienced?
Because they are innocent it makes the fact that they where cruelly treated even worse.
What is meant by 'touring all of Europe'?
It means that they went down the river throughout all of Europe after they had been thrown in. It also gives the effect that they are drawn to the motherland.