Analysis Poem By Elie Wiesel

This poem is quite openly themed around suffering. In Essence the Jews experienced every possible form of suffering imaginable. The entire poem is a symbol of agony crushing the innocent body of the Jew. The stanzas all represent a recurring sense of hopelessness which plagued the Jewish people around the world during World War two. Throughout the poem it feels as if you heard every Holocaust survivor cry at once. The poem begins as a cry to God which directly resembles the Jews cry for help during their suffering. The line “ Where is God now? Shows the unimaginable suffering they are going through, since they are very religious, they would only question God’s intent if they are truly on the verge of biblical hell. The quote “The idea of

It emphasizes the theme and symbol of suffering by showing it was all, but naturally to the Jews. The next unique line “Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog.”, emphasizes through a metaphor comparing the numbed senses to something fading into a fog; the unknowingness of life they still have. This use of figurative language helps execute the general idea of how petrified and lifeless the Jews were in Auschwitz. Combined with the poem's barbed wire outline around the poem and pictures creates an atmosphere of only inescapable pain. The next stanza begins with “I was nothing but a body.” This emphasizes again the underlying theme of extreme affliction making the Jews used to it. The reason it is in the start of stanza is to finish off the idea of inescapable pain and how the Nazi’s thought of them as nothing, but toys to be tested and tossed around. Finally, the last unique line “This must be how one stands last for last judgment.”, is a final symbol for how many of the Jews saw their last moment on earth. In the top left picture it shows the aftermath of weeks of testing in one Jews with barely any food, and you see how they are being treated like wild animals. The Jews accepted this same as how they believe this was God's last judgment. The top right picture shows how what Jews were lined up and eventually shot to death. This helps emphasize the theme of inexorable pain and suffering, God's final judgment. The bottom left picture shows the everyday occurrences witnessed by adults and children alike, the shooting of their relatives' corpses with the mindset of being next in line waiting for death as an escape. Finally, the bottom right picture shows the faces of Jews minutes before being beaten to death, their faces are not scared,