Monika Shafi

I always have a great interest learning about people. I felt that Shafi spoke passionately and intelligently about Gertrud Kolmar. I enjoyed learning about her life and how her isolation and differences allowed her to create poetry. 

I see a lot of strange connections in her life. The fact that she was a woman poet makes her an ousider, as well as the fact that she was a Jewish woman in Nazi Germany. She lived on the outskirts of society by never marrying and writing about women. She took a different role in society and the world saw her as a different type of person in many aspects. She wrote about animals such as vermin and rodents which is ultimately what she paralleled herself to be like. 

One of the last points that Shafi made was that Gertrud Kolmar experienced a triple burden. She was a woman, a poet, and a Jew. I found this to be interesting and somewhat unsettling. Of course in todays society a Jewish, woman, poet would not be looked at as a burden, but maybe more of a minority.