Bergen-Belsen was one of the most notorious

concentration camps of the Second World War. It became a camp for those who were too weak or sick to work and many people

died because of the terrible conditions.

Vultures – Chinua Achebe

The poem begins with an unpleasant description of a pair of vultures who nestle lovingly together after feasting on a corpse. The poet considers how strange it is for love to exist in places you would not have thought possible. He

goes on to consider the 'love' a concentration camp commander shows to his family. After spending his day burning human corpses, he buys his child sweets on the

way home.

In the greyness and drizzle of one despondent dawn unstirred by harbingers of sunbreak

a vulture perching high on broken bone of a dead tree nestled close to his mate his smooth bashed-in head, a pebble on a stem rooted in a dump of gross feathers, inclined affectionately to hers.

Yesterday they pickedthe eyes of a swollencorpse in a water-loggedtrench and ate the things in its bowel

Vultures eat dead bodies but they act in an affectionate way to

each other.Contrast of emotions.

Strange indeed how love in other ways so particular will pick a corner in that charnel-house tidy it and coil up there, perhaps even fall asleep - her face turned to the wall!

Charnel-house = a

vault where dead bodies

are piled.

The vultures in the poem eat things that are already dead. This is different to the

Commandent, as he kills humans. Similarly, the vultures are eating the

bodies to survive. The Commandent does not need to kill people.

‘…thecommandant at Belsen…’

He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of

people.

“going home for the day with

fumes of human roast clinging

rebelliously to his hairy nostrils”

The Commandant cannot forget

what he has done at work – the smell of burning bodies stays with him.

“will stop at the wayside sweet-shop

and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring

waiting at home for Daddy's return”

Image of the Commandant buying sweets for his child.

The words “tender” and

“Daddy” suggest that the child is young and innocent.

Praise bounteous providence if you will that grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in every germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil.

bounteous providence = all good things that

God gives to mankind.

perpetuity = going on forever.

kindred = related by blood, close

family.

Praise bounteous providence if you will that grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in every germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil.

The end of the poem is

ambiguous – this means that

the meaning is unclear.

There are two different things

that Achebe could be saying.

On the one hand, Achebe is saying that we should give thanks that even someone

terrible can have a little spark of love and tenderness.

Even and “ogre” or monster can have a “tiny glow-worm” of tenderness. This means

the poem ends on a positive note.

On the other hand, Achebe despairs. Some people only

show love for their own family and allow themselves to be evil to others. For every

“germ” of love the Commandant has for his

family, evilness still continues. Should we despair that

terrible evil can be found in love?