Marcysia The Milkmaid Analysis

"Over there, near the church, there are a lot of people, they are going to pray. They are standing on the sidewalk and in the yard in front of the church. When we get there I'm going to put you down on the ground. You’re little, no one will notice you. Then you'll ask somebody to take you Marcysia, the milkmaid, outside of town. She’ll take you in. Or maybe one of those people will take you home. Do you understand what papa said? (Frank 45-46).” (Fink, 1995).”

What makes the passage difficult and complex to read is that the parents had to listen to the gunshot that took their only daughter’s life away. Even though, they tried to protect her from being killed by the Nazis, which still happened at the end of the story. Reading this story, I don’t think any parent should have to go through such pain and heartbreaking loss of their only daughter.
Looking at the title, my first assumption was that the story happened in the spring.
From a literary point of view, I know that the spring brings about restoration, rebirth, and a life after death. At the beginning of the story, it seemed to be that the father was having some fun time with friends at the bar. However, soon the town started to get quiet and the clouds began to get gray, which brought to mind that a danger is coming their way. In fact, the terrible thing did happen when the SS took the family away from their home. The family was about to die in abrupted and violent way. Even though the little girl died, she will live the afterlife and find renewal in heaven where she will live in an eternal spring. She will forgive her father for bringing her into a dangerous
world.

What I find surprising about this story, make me think about a story I read in high school called “The Night” by Wiesel. Both the stories talk about Jews taken out of their homes and being sent to concentration camps. In “A Spring Morning,” what stood out to me was when the man and his wife argued why they have to birth a child at the time of suffering in Germany. They regretted the time and minutes of everything when the SS truck showed up in the street and the man promised his daughter's that he will take her into his arms. On their way to the camps, they made a stop where the German soldiers were confined all the Jews to be taken to the camps. The father told his daughter's to run into the church where the people were praying to look for their friend Marcysia or someone else who would take her home. While she was running into the church she got shot in the back. Just to read that she got shot in back, gave me a sense that the Nazi Germans did not care about killing children. Knowing that the father was trying to sacrifice to save his daughter life and seeing her dead was heartbreaking for him. Unfortunately, the father’s dream about asking his daughter forgiveness never happens because she got killed.

The way the story ended, I was not ready to read such a catastrophe happening to a five-year-old girl. I sense with the father’s decision to save his daughter, but on the other hands, he was not certain that she would get shot in the back by the SS soldiers because she was a young child. Overall, she is dead. It is possible that she will live the afterlife and doesn’t have to watch what her father and mother have to go through during their time in the concentration camp.