Jewish American Poetry

He Comes for the Jewish Family, 1942

Author: Sharon Olds
Date: 11/05/19
Event: Jewish in WW2
Characters: The German, the family
Memorable Quote: "They knew his body hated them."

This poem in particular touches deep fibers of the Jewish people fears during WW2. Everybody has fears towards many things, some fear death, others losing a job, but for Jewish families during WW2, their major fear was another human, a Nazi. Nazi soldiers would come to their houses and take members of their families to the gas chambers and concentration camps or do terrible things, such terrible things that they would rather be dead than having to receive the Germans in their houses. The poem specifically talks about this part; a Jewish family that seems terrified because a German soldier has arrived at their house, and they know he can do whatever he pleases with them. I think that this feeling of being helpless and powerless in your own home is horrible, but it is worse to know that you do not even have a say in regards to your own life or your loved ones'. Hence, when I read the poem I thought in how helpless they were and how they became simple numbers for the Germans. In fact, for the Nazis, Jewish people were not even considered humans anymore, they were below animals. This shows the dark place in which the Germans were, a dark place that released such darkness that chased and killed millions of people, the worst kind of darkness that can come from the human being.