William Heyen's The Swastika Poems run the gamut of general to specific: they are mostly about war and the Nazi atrocities in World War II, but they are also about William Heyen and his family, who were divided and on different sides of the war…. It is apparent, throughout these poems, that William Heyen has spent a lifetime questioning the perplexities of Nazi Germany, and attempting to come to grips with his heritage.

This book is a study in psychology, a psychology that extends far beyond that of Nazi Germany. Heyen's poems are psychological in the same manner as the paintings and drawings of George Grosz: they do not constitute a formal psychological analysis of Nazi Germany, and from this standpoint they are indirect. However when considered in terms of emotional impact, vividness of imagery, and immediacy, they are very direct indeed. (pp. 158-59)

Many of Heyen's poems...