Optical Allusionist

I have a poem that's on the blog a couple times called "Berlin". It's from a German boy's point of view during World War II. Well-written poem, but definitely not the perspective we usually find when talking about WWII. I wrote the poem for my creative writing class, to enter it into a school-wide writing contest. Since my class was hosting the contest, we got to rate the poems, essays, and short stories. The girl on my right said "Oh, wow, my favorite poem is number 10" (the number assigned to "Berlin") The girl in front of her, a friend of mine, replied, "Oh, the German one? Yeah, I thought it was okay, but I'd never vote for it, 'cause I'm just too pro-American." She said the same thing to me when she found out it was mine. What?? "Pro-American"? What does THAT mean? I guess, through her eyes, it means admitting that nothing America does is wrong. Manifest Destiny was justifiable. Using incendiary bombs against innocent civilians in small German cities was also justifiable. Oh, how about the Trail of Tears? "Well, y'know, it's bettered our life now because those dirty Injuns are where they oughta be! The reservations!! Andrew Jackson wasn't being racist! He was being, erm, sensible!" We like to think that when we go into a country, through our military, we are "freeing them". That they will worship us? "God bless America", right? Right. ?:( But who would dare say that the Germans were yelling "God bless America for blowing my child up with that fragmented grenade!" or "God bless America for burning my mother in the incendiary flames!" Shame on you for thinking that. Never expect a civilian to fall immediately in love with you, especially once you kill a loved one.

My feeling is that it's BETTER to say "Yeah, we're an okay country, but we can be better." To say, "This is what we're doing wrong, and let's change it!" My feeling is that it's ANTI-American (as in "works against the ideals America was founded on") to say, "oh yeah, we're perfect" because then we can't progress. I am not necessarily saying I think America is the best country. I think there are many, honestly, amazing countries, and there is no best. Many have both major flaws and major good things about these countries. Many European countries are just as just as America. Let's not forget that, eh? We're not the only ones on this Earth, and we don't have to believe we're perfect, to be "patriotic".

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Berlin

I run down these streets watching the planes fly over.
My friends laugh at them, pointing up into the sky,
But my father told me about these planes.
Bombs, he said-- to destroy the Fuehrer.
Of course, it was the first year in many
That we hadn't had to worry about food.

Why would Britain take that away from us?
I don't laugh and point with the others.

My father shakes me awake. "Wach auf!! Sie kommen! Sie kommen!"
They're coming. A great horn cuts the night,
As we scamper to the bomb shelter.
Great bombs shatter the peace of the night.

Why are they doing this?
I shake and cry with each new bang.
Closer and closer.


A tear stained pillow in the God-forsaken bunker
Welcomes the new day.
"Wo ist Vati?" Where is father?
My father, Mother says, went outside that morning.
There was no food in the bunker.
I jump to follow him, but my mother grabs me back.
No, she screams, I cannot lose you too.

But I leave soon enough anyways.
We can't stay cooped up in the bunker for forever.
The light from outside blinds us until...
I wish it would blind us again.



He went out for food? I ask mother.
There is no food. It looks like it did before Hitler.
There is no anything. This is what the Fuehrer had saved us from.
Rubble and debris clutter the streets.
Listless comrades trudge through the streets of our beloved city.
Berlin.

We search for Vati.
He must come back sometime.
For days we don't return home. There is no home now.
Only the bunker has been spared. No bed. No food.
No anything.

My mother is small.
She cowers. She does not eat enough.
But that may be only due to the fact that we don't find enough to eat.
Vati was never found.
Mutti doesn't seem to care anymore.
I can hear her chatter in her sleep.

I'm angry.
Hitler gave us food.
He gave us pride.
He gave us bravery.
He gave us self-respect.
He gave us protection.

And now they take it away.
They take it away like they did before.

I run to the enlistment office.
I will teach these British Schweinhuende.
But the men in their uniforms laugh.
We know you want to help, they say,
But come back in a few years when you're older.
Be a good German boy now.
We will teach them.

But I don't miss the terror in their eyes, and the creases in their brow.

I run down these streets again
The streets of a once- stunning city.
But now the only stunning thing about it is that it
Is no longer the wonder it once was.

Berlin.




This is a tank in the middle of Berlin's ruins. I'd show a picture of an incendiary bomb, but I'm not sure those were dropped on Berlin specifically. We need to remember that everyone has their own perspective, especially in tragedy. Not everyone was overjoyed that we were coming to "free" the Germans. Not many were saying "God bless America for burning my mother in the incendiary flames!" We need to remember this as we are in Iraq. One innocent Iraqi civilian dies, and it opens the way for his or her friends and family to be angry at a country that was never asked to come in. Hitler was an evil man, who did a lot of good as well as a lot of bad, no matter what his motives were. He helped a starving nation- Germany, while destroying many other nations. I wouldn't say he was a good man, but I would say he did do some good things.


This is the structure of an incendiary bomb. These were dropped into German cities (and British ones). They would drop, explode, and create fires that would reach immense temperatures and immense heights. Heat rises, and so drafts would be created from all the air rising with the air as it continued to get hotter. The drafts were so powerful that they would carry cars, animals, any debris on the street, and even human beings, right into the fires. Human beings were sucked into the flames we created-- and we knew they would be. If you weren't sucked in, you might be very likely to get hit by a rushing piece of debris, which, if it's big enough or hits in the right spot, can kill you as well. If you were in an underground bunker, the air in the bunker was likely to be sucked upwards with the rest of the air, which meant suffocation for all those hoping to survive. Very few people survived incendiary bombs. Who thought up something like this in the first place?


Who did Germany take over first? Sudentenland? Poland? Sure, whatever, but remember: Who did the Nazis take over first? Poland? No, sir. Germany. The German people were captives of their own. There was much they didn't know about Hitler's (or Goebbel's or Goerring's) orders. It wasn't until after the war that most discovered the truth of the concentration camps. People who were against the "Vaterland" were often taken away without a trace. No one knew where they went. Fear was replaced with fear. You no longer had to worry about your children starving. But you did have to worry about other things. Remember, the German people were victims just like the rest of Europe. Fear makes people do crazy things.

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