Antipersonnel Mine

Publication Instance Details #3373

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	War HR & Weapons of Mass Destruction (incl. nuclear)
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War
Languages	English
Genre	Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The title of this poem refers to a form of mine against humans, used extensively during World War II. This sequence is made up of four short poems that appear to rely on eye-witness accounts from different sources. The speaker of the first section is a medical aid person treating a dying German soldier. The lines correspond closely to the testimony of American aidman Leo Litwak, published in the book 'All Hell Let Loose: The World At War 1939-1945' by Max Hastings. The second section is also written in the first person and corresponds closely to the testimony of American soldier, Private Bob Conroy, relating to his experience at the Battle of Bulge. See: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/pdf/transcript/bulge_transcript.pdf The third and fourth sections are also written in the first person, the latter from the perspective of a Jewish female sharing scarce drinking water with others. The sources have not yet been identified.