Customer Reviews

In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (Pitt Poetry Series)

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This is a wonderful book. The author has read the testimonies of Allied soldiers, who had liberated the concentration camps in Europe in WWII. Based on these testimonies, she created a set of vignettes in narrative poem form. Each mini-poem (all less than twenty lines long, with but a few words on each line) captures a thought or an experience. Since the author is recreating the experiences of others, I was worried that the poems would be derivative or schmaltzy. But such is not the case. The poems sound authentic and the voice of the soldiers comes through clearly. The poems are simple, but the ideas behind them quite sophisticated. These poems convey the confusing and painful experiences that the young men felt when confronted with the horrific suffering of Holocaust survivors. The poems deal with revulsion and pity, with fear and guilt, with beauty and horrifying ugliness.

I highly recommend this book both to the general reader and to teachers of classes about the Holocaust. Sections of the book would make good sources for discussion.