The Shawl, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, and Children's Poems

There are a number of great films that can help supplement one's understanding of WWII and the literature we're reading that's a reflection of this era.  Just to name a few:  Band of Brothers (series), Saving Private Ryan, Miracle at St. Ana's, The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas, Sophie's Choice, Shoah, The Last Days, Schindler's List, Playing for Time etc.  In this unit it's impossible not to consider the circumstances that inspired these stories, which we will do in class.  To give you a few thoughts by which you can start considering this week's texts, however, here are a few questions:

In Ozick's "The Shawl,"  the shawl is considered "a magic shawl."  How is it magical?  In what ways does it nourish?
Are there ways to celebrate the human spirit and the strength of humans based on Ozick's text?

How does the “politeness” of the title mock the content of the story? Can you find other examples of such mockery within the story?

Note examples of insect and animal imagery. What is the significance of such imagery?

Identify moments where the authors are using symbols and imagery to convey their experiences.  

How does it impact your reading/experience of the poems knowing all of them were written by young children authors? 

            Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl" is a story about a mother named Rosa and her baby named Magda who are in a concentration camp fighting to survive. Magda has great dependence on her mother but most importantly on her mother's shawl, which gives her protection, warmth, and nourishment. The shawl is considered "magic" because it keeps her alive through hiding her from the guards and containing the almond and cinnamon nourishment; however, it also provides a piece of the past amid the death and suffering of the camps.  As stated in the story, "It was a magic shawl; it could nourish an infant for three days and three nights. Magda did not die, she stayed alive, although very quiet" (Ozick 1). In addition, the shawl represents a sense of dependence and responsibility as Magda "watched like a tiger. She guarded her shawl. No one could touch it; only Rosa could touch it...the shawl was Magda's own baby, her pet, her little sister" (Ozick 2). In addition, at the end of the story when Magda is apart from her shawl, Magda dies and Rosa stuffs the shawl in her mouth, feeling the nourishment that Magda once felt. Furthermore, for ways to celebrate the human spirit and strength "The Shawl" provides the close interaction with Rosa and Magda and the shawl itself. The strength is seen through the shawl as it represents a piece of home, while also keeping Magda alive.

            In Tadeusz Borowski's "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber" a man is in charge of getting the overloaded Jewish prisoners off the train, watching them in pain and confusion, though he cannot say a word to them directly. The polite notion seen in the title mocks the story by making it casual that the Nazis are brutally killing people, starving them, and torturing them. In addition, the Red Cross Ambulance carried gas instead of the typical medical supplies making the international symbol mean false hope for the prisoners. It became more of a death symbol rather than a help and healing symbol because they were tricked into thinking they would care for them. More symbols include the smoke stack and more importantly that the prisoners were treated as animals. This includes the reference to them as paper dolls instead of humans, "Slowly, extremely slowly cars roll up, the locomotive whistles back screechingly, from the windows human faces look out, pale and crumpled and flattened like paper cut-outs, their eyes huge and feverish" (Borowski 2782). In addition, the fact that they are considered numbers instead of individual, unique faces; "those who will go to the work camp from this transport will receive numbers 131-132. Thousands, of course, but abbreviated they will be referred to just like that: 131-132" (Borowski 2780).

            Lastly, the children's poems from "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" by Hana Volavkova were very heart wrenching, as the audience saw the Holocaust from an innocent child's perspective. The first poem is Pavel Friedman's "The Butterfly" which depicts a big yellow butterfly as the last symbol of freedom he saw. He mentions that the dandelions are a comfort to him in the camps, but just as he is, they are trapped inside the ghetto walls, whereas the butterflies are free to fly where they want. The next poem is Mif's "Terezin" and it displays the "heaviest wheel rolls across our / foreheads" (Mif lines 1-2), thus representing the outrageous burden they have due to the witnessing of the suffering and killing in the camps. In addition, he also yearns for a chance to end the camps as he imagines "standing above a / swamp / From which any moment might gush forth a / spring" (lines 9-12). The swamp represents the ghetto whereas the water represents the desire for freedom.