T4

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Paula Becker is named after the German painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907). The Nazis labeled her art, mainly portraits of peasant girls and women, “degenerate.” She was a close friend of the great German poet Rainier Maria Rilke (1875–1926). Rilke’s wife, the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1878-1954), was Paula’s closest friend.

“Hear the Voice of the Poet” was inspired by the English poet William Blake’s “Introduction,” the first poem in his book Songs of Experience (1794).

Unfortunately, the practice of pouring hot wax into a person’s ears to cure deafness was more common than it should have been into the twentieth century.

I thank Merriam Webster’s online student dictionary for the neutral definition of euthanasia.

“The Story of Anny Wodl” is taken from an English translation of testimony given at the Nuremberg trials. I borrowed Frederich Holderlin’s last name for Stephanie. Holderlin (1770–1843) was a major German lyric poet.

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