Broken Carousel

by Peter Appelbaum

The tragedy of the First World War shaped the twentieth century. War changes lives in ways otherwise unimaginable and creates generational legacies of loss. Giving voice to the traumas and experiences of war is something that is frequently best expressed through the words of poets who can speak with one voice for many soldiers. Their words convey emotions, sentiments, and experiences that are often too difficult for others to express.
There are many familiar names among the war poets of the war, but most of them are British Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Ivor Gurney, and a score of others. What is largely absent and overlooked is the perspective of soldiers from the Central Powers. This volume provides English and German readers the poetry of German Jewish soldiers. Among the poets presented
Immanuel Saul, Walther Heymann, Ludwig Franz Meyer, Alfred Lichstein, Samuel Jacobs, Leo Sternberg, Hartwig Heymann, Jacob Diamant, Ernst Toller, & Kurt Tucholsky
Breathtaking and heartbreaking, the poems show that the traumas of war know neither boundaries nor national allegiance.

403 pages, Hardcover

Published March 13, 2017