Woodchucks

The Holocaust was the systematic and state-sponsored persecution and genocide of over 6 million Jewish people and other marginalized peoples by the Nazi German regime and its allies. Beginning in 1933, the Nazi rhetoric continued to radicalize until the end of World Warr II in 1945.

With the election of Adolf Hitler in 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany. The Nazis believed that the so-called Jewish race was the most inferior and most dangerous of all races. Contemporary beliefs about eugenics and Social Darwinism were used to falsely justify these beliefs. As a result, the Nazis argued that Jewish people were a threat to German society and needed to be removed and eradicated.

Building upon centuries-old antisemitism, the Nazis began not with mass murder but rather political rhetoric. They falsely blamed Jewish people for many of Germany’s social, economic, and political problems. For example, Nazis blamed Jewish people for Germany’s defeat in World War I. Laws around all aspects of daily life were created to exclude Jewish people. Slowly building upon this ideology, the Nazis’ plan culminated in the organized, systematic genocide of Jewish people, called the “Final Solution.”

The two main methods of killing during the Holocaust are referenced in “Woodchucks”: mass shootings and gas chambers. Units of German soldiers traveled around Europe, forced mass groups of Jewish people to the outskirts of the towns and then shot them. These massacres typically occurred during the day with little to no secrecy, carried out in view and earshot of the local people. The gas chambers were both at concentration camps and in mobile gas vans. The Nazi guards would lock Jewish people inside sealed rooms and then fill them with poison gas so that all those inside suffocated. To transport Jewish people to these concentration camps, Nazis used the established European railway network to efficiently liquidate whole towns.

Many individuals participated in the genocide of Jewish people, even if they were not directly involved in the murder. Many countries and individuals turned a blind eye. Governments worked towards a policy of appeasing Hitler. Individuals accepted these small changes, wanting to maintain the status quo. Many individuals also acted as informants, denouncing Jewish people to the Nazi authorities to identify them and their hiding places. The poem alludes to these “sub-sub-basement[s]” (Line 6), which represent the basements, attics, floorboards, and other places where Jewish people sought shelter from the Nazis.