Holocaust Poetry No.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? Imagery is used throughout this poem to describe the Jewish children and everything that happens to them. 

Discuss the effect of the simile in this poem. The effect of the simile in this poem is to show how they were treated such as a game and the Nazis were the players in the game controlling them and deciding their fates. 

How is alliteration used in the poem? What is the effect? Alliteration is used in this poem to contrast the difference between the bread and the bullets where the kids were being fed barely anything and the bullets which killed the Jewish kids.

How does the author juxtapose the innocence of the children to the cruelty they experienced? The author juxtaposes the innocence of the children to the cruelty they experienced by telling us how the children were treated poorly without knowing anything that is happening to them. 

What is meant by 'touring all of Europe'? It means that when they were thrown into the river which flowed through Europe where they eventually washed onto the shores of Eretz Yisrael.