Hitler's First Photograph Essay

Hitler’s First Photograph, written by Wislawa Szymborska, is an intriguing poem that describes Hitler in his first year of life and how normal it was, from the slanted view of his parents. The writer describes how Hitler’s parents, not unlike scores of other parents across the world, are full of pride and anticipation, trying to imagine their kid’s greatness into existence. Szymborska further drives home the normalcy of that first year of life in the fourth stanza, when he writes that the young Führer is, “like the tots in every other family album.” I selected this poem because of my fascination with Hitlers rise to power as well as the age-old epistemological debate of nature v/s nurture. Was Hitler born evil or did his worldly experiences make him that way? There could probably be several different themes in this particular poem; however, in my opinion, the main theme of this poem is that people may in fact, be born evil. Although, as a young child Hitler was often stubborn and independent, many historians have come to the conclusion that, given the timeframe, there is nothing that was indicative of the ruthless madman he would eventually become. The entirety of the poem describes an infant child in the view of parents and how normal the baby seems. It is one school of thought that babies are born with a blank slate, and that they are shaped
In a way, the poem is kind of scary because unbeknownst to many people, evil is usually hiding in plain site. Often times there are no tell-tail signs at all. If I had a chance to speak with Wislawa Szymborska about her poem, I would tell her that it is a very thought provoking poem. I would also like to know exactly what her perspective is, does she think he was born to evil? She grew up in a very tumultuous time and had a unique perspective to the to the atrocities