Poem:



Poem: Camp Concentration

Poet: Andrew Fusek Peters

Era Written: 21st century

Point of View:

The poem is written from the perspective of a school student who shows concern for the treatment and labeling of people because they are different.

Subject matter:

If you were imperfect (eg. Weak, sensitive, fat, white, black, wore glasses) you would be ridiculed and labeled bad names at school. The description of the school’s treatment of outcasts, is then (in the second stanza) contrasted to the treatment of the Jews in Nazi Germany. It describes the experience of the narrator’s mother, as her school friend is taken by the SS to a concentration camp.

Purpose:

To portray the severity and terror of the Nazi’s discrimination and compare it to other forms of discrimination in school

Theme/message/ideas privileged:

Even simple name calling/bullying others because they are different is counted as discrimination; the same discrimination which persecuted many Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

Emotion and mood:

In the first stanza the mood is very serious, and the writer gives the impression that they are upset and hurt. When the second stanza begins, tension mounts and the poem introduces a more melancholy and scary atmosphere.

Poetry Techniques/craftsmanship:

• Structure - two consistent 12 lined stanzas

• Language –

o Deep and fairly mature language used throughout poem

o Descriptive and truthful – evokes emotion

• Imagery –

o Stanza two; symbol – twilight thugs, handing out hate

~ means: people who invaded houses at night to take away Jews

• Movement –

o Fairly slow pace – gives time to take in mood/intensity of poem

• Sounds –

o Rhyme: AABBCCDDEEFF, AABBCCDDEFEF

Register:

The narrators register is very honest and mature, despite the fact that they are still at schooling age. They use slang language, but not because they normally use slang, but because they are quoting the words of social groups of their time.

Discourse:

The poem’s discourse requires the reader to have some prior knowledge about Nazi Germany in order to fully comprehend the second stanza. The narrator uses slang discriminatory terminology in their speech eg. “bent, poof, queer” and their discourse is one of a person who opposes discrimination.

Reading Position:

The viewer has been positioned to see the rejection and treatment of people who ‘were branded different’ and we have been made to understand what kind of people in school are discriminated against.

The next stanza we are positioned to see the scary times in Nazi Germany, and feel scared of the intensity of their discrimination. The last two lines position the reader to compare discrimination against Jews to other unfitting groups and show that both of these are forms of discrimination.

Socio-cultural views:

The poem displays the social attitudes of Nazis towards the Jewish from the early-mid 20th century. It also highlights some different forms of discrimination that occur in today’s society and the type of people discriminated against (mainly focusing on schools).

Gaps & silences:

The poem uses a very effective gap, where they only state that ‘they took her school friend far away, on a camping trip that none would choose.’ This left it open for the reader to interpret, and relies on our knowledge of the treatment of minority groups in Nazi Germany to understand what happened.

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