10/28 Questions

• During WWII, it certainly would be rough to have been a German in the United States. I don't think it was equal to the animosity felt towards Japanese Americans, however. Germans were not sent to special concentration camps like the Japanese Americans, however, there was still a fair amount of paranoia against them during WWII. Part of this is possibly because there are so many people of Germanic descent in the United States, and possibly even the fact that Germans were white and it was easier for them to blend into the crowd and not be seen and consequently harassed.
• I don't know if "surprise" is the best word, but it was the first time that I've actually read accounts of mistreatment and harshness towards German people at all. So in a sense, I was surprised when I read that it happened, but the surprise really didn't last.
• I feel that Borchert's stories showed that post-war Germany was quiet. The story that really stuck with me was the first one, with the singing soldier. The sheer loneliness after so much of the population was killed or captured, mixed with the sudden quiet that came after the loud explosions and bombings near the end of the war would have made for a really gruesome sight. I also really liked The Kitchen Clock. The sense that time suddenly stopped and everything was quiet and surreal must have been what it felt like once the fighting suddenly ceased.
• I think they give quite a bit of insight into the lives and attitudes of the German citizens after the war. I'd certainly put it on-par with Maus in terms of insight on its respective time period because it really got into the minds of the people who lived there, as opposed to just drilling facts and information into the reader's head.
• As I said, I really liked the first story, Lots and Lots of Snow. The setting of it (the snow-covered ground) as well as its time setting (still relatively new in the year) made for a sense of a fresh start, and the fact that the snow covered the land is symbolic of how the Germans still had to live with what happened to them and what happened because of them underneath. I was also really impressed with the sergeant's reaction to his singing. Christmas is almost universally a time of piece in the Western world, and to finally hear peace after the occasional ringing gunshot brought him to laughter. He was happy the violence was over.