Given what she has endured during her young life, not to mention her circumstances at that moment, Szifra's feelings are completely understandable and, many would argue, justified. In part, her reaction to the poem is a statement about her youth because there are many accounts of Holocaust survivors discuss forgiveness years after World War II. Did they feel the same way in the midst of being tortured? I don't recall that question being asked. I think the answer would be fascinating. Forgiveness isn't for the transgressor . . . it's for the survivor and can often take a lifetime to achieve. Perhaps most importantly, forgiveness is an emotion that Szifra did not have the luxury to indulge in. She was focused on surviving and protecting her brothers. Szifra as an old woman who escaped the ghetto? Perhaps she would have been capable of extending that grace to herselves and her captors.