Three Faces of Starvation:
How Tales from The Child of the Enemy Describes Hunger in Germany
Ivana Howard

In a very unusual way, Ursula Duba tells a sad story in which she does not hide her past or her feelings. Born at the very beginning of the World War II, Duba spends her childhood and adolescent years first in the warring and later in the war-torn Germany. Haunted by the ghosts from her old country, Duba talks about the war and a life after it. Among the many themes that repeatedly flow through these emotionally charged poems, the author mentions physical hunger quite often. Duba pairs certain three leading groups (herself, Jews, and Germans) with three different emotions. Duba clearly distinguishes her attitude toward the World War II and its numerous victims when she talks about her hunger with a tone of pain; about Jewish starvation with anger, guilt, and shame; and about German people’s hunger always with cynicism.

Duba pailfully remembers her childhood filled with bombings and hunger. In "The Child of the Enemy," Duba describes herself in the time of bombing as "a child of six… / surrounded by adults / half crazed with…hunger" (1-3). Unfortunately, the hunger affects other German children as well. In "A Slice of Bread," Duba’s family of nine struggles with starvation: they divide a loaf of bread into 18 equal pieces (8-11). When "hunger became a relentless companion," the six-year-old Duba asked "for another slice of bread" (8-11). Her request results in severe consequences: the same evening, her father mercilessly punishes the little girl and she learns not to ever ask for anything again. Even after the war, Duba shows she learned lesson and she controls her hunger. In "My First Orange," Duba remembers a neighbor who buys the exotic fruit for her son. The neighbor feeds her son in front of Duba and her siblings. Duba exclaims with pain,

yes we could see the orange
yes we could smell its fine fragrance
no we couldn’t taste it
that was my first orange (20-21) She stays hungry and never asks for a bite. Duba’s childhood pain comes hidden, but clear.

Yet her descriptions of her own hunger seem trivial compared to the anger, guilt, and shame that surfaces when Duba tells about the hunger of Jewish people. Her outrage weaves through all descriptions of Jewish sufferings. Duba mentions starvation many times and in "Guests of Honor," she openly and unlike most Germans says that "people were… / starved" in Auschwitz and all over Germany (105-112). Other hidden truths comes clean through indirect descriptions; for example, in "How I Learned to Cook," an Auschwitz survivor tells how women "talked about food mostly / and recipes" while starving and waiting for death (75-77). Probably the most obvious reference to starvation comes in "Her Friend Sophie." Liberated Jews suffered because of "the unaccustomed richness / and quantity of food" and many of them died in a newly gained freedom (78-81). The sympathy she creates for the Jews allows her to detach herself from all that German people did or did not do during World War II, and especially from everything they did not openly say.

When free Germans talk about their hunger, however, Duba writes about it with cynicism. Duba admits the hunger; in "The Victims," she says that "food was scarce" and

people cart[ed] their heirlooms off to the countryside
to exchange for a bag of potatoes
a pound of lard
a few cans of sardines (28-33) However, Duba never shows compassion for German people. Although a German herself, Duba considers her own pain very much different than the one of other German people. She constantly emphasizes her lack of knowledge on what happened around her. On the other side, Germans who knew about the crimes towards Jews do not deserve the chance to express their pains since they did not deserve it. All of Duba’s compassion goes to Jewish people. When two Jewish intellectuals respond to an invitation and visit their hometown in Germany as "Guests of Honor," Duba describes their conversation with old friends. The Germans never ask the Jewish couple how they survived. They hurry to say "how hungry [the Germans] had been / at the end of the war / and for several years after the war" (105-112). Thus, Duba points out German selfishness, ignorance, and obvious oblivion which all adds to her determination not to sympathize with their pain.

Although Duba expresses her bitterness through many other themes, hunger intermittently comes through almost each of them. Duba talks about hunger even when she does not mention it at all; it comes as hunger for truth, knowledge, or justice. However, the physical hunger bears as much importance as the abstract ones. This hunger helps shape Duba as a person, adds to a sad picture of Jewish sufferings, and helps her delineate the monstrosity of German people even after the war. Finally, this book talks about war, and Duba knows that no one survived one without being hungry. Thus, she rightfully includes hunger in this powerful description of a child growing up in a war zone.

Works Cited

Duba, Ursula. "The Child of the Enemy." Tales from a  Child of the Enemy. New York: Penguin, 1997. 1-3.

---. "Guests of Honor." Tales from a  Child of the Enemy. New York: Penguin, 1997. 105-112.

---. "Her Friend Sophie."Tales from a  Child of the Enemy.  New York: Penguin, 1997. 78-81.

---. "How I Learned to Cook." Tales from a  Child of the Enemy. New York: Penguin, 1997. 75-77.

---. "My First Orange." Tales from a  Child of the Enemy. New York: Penguin, 1997. 20-21.

---. "A Slice of Bread." Tales from a  Child of the Enemy. New York: Penguin, 1997. 8-11.

---. "The Victims." Tales from a  Child of the Enemy. New York: Penguin, 1997. 28-33.