The poem entitled “The Trains” by William Heyen gave me a very scared and sad feeling. After reading this poem the thoughts of the Holocaust came to my mind. Although this poem was written in 1984, the poem still reflects on the horrors of the Holocaust. When I looked at when the author was born in 1940, I then realized that he came into this world in a time where people were being killed because of the faith. This was the era of World War 2. Under Adolf Hitler’s rule there were trains that carried millions of people to concentration camps, where they were sentenced to death either by gassing them or execution style. A part of the poem describes how “the finest watches were never melted down”. This is in reference to the burning of the bodies and how the Nazi’s use to steal all the valuables of the Jews. “All the women’s hair was used for mattresses, or dolls.” This was a very difficult line to understand. I have never heard about the Nazi’s using women’s hair to make mattresses. When the author says “One of those watches may pulse in your own wrist”, I believe that this means that someday you might have one of those gold watches around your wrist
K. Ramlogan
I agree that the poem is a holocaust horror story. It describes what the Nazi, under commander Franz Paul Stangl did to the Jews in Treblinka. They were raped of their wealth – Gold watches- and clothes were turned into paper and their womanhood and dignity was taken away when their hair was cut off.
The first question threw me off because it felt as if suddenly connected the past to his present as if he is somehow connected to or have a choice of using some of that pulped paper. The use of the word in, in the statement “One of those watches may pulse in your wrist today” suggest that someone who is reading the poem or the writer himself is may have inherited the stolen wealth of the Jews.
The second question again suggests that even today there might be links to persons who tortured the Jews or took part in the holocaust. During the 1970’s the writer spent some time in Germany and visited some holocaust sites. This together with his family history which includes an uncle who fought for the German army gave him the insight I believe for this poem.