Marguerite Symbol
Marguerite is the obsession of the Nazi camp guard. She is blonde and blue eyed, and given a mystical innocence and purity that makes her all the more idealized and attractive. She is a symbol of the Nazi's view of the racial ideal. Hitler planned to create a Master Race of only blonde and blue-eyed people and he firmly believed that they were the racial ideal, and the only way to strengthen a country moving forward. Marguerite symbolizes this and as she is also young, symbolizes the fact that people who look like her are seen to be the future of the nation.
Shulamith Symbol
Shulamith is also a beautiful woman, but she does not have blonde hair, but "ashen". She is a symbol of the fact that the 'nation' she belongs to is going up in smoke, her ashen hair the result of her burning or her death. She is also a symbol of the Jewish race which is being wiped out in Germany by the Nazis, and the prisoner's recognition of this fact.
Black Milk Symbol
The words "black milk" are present in the first lines of each stanza and symbolize the overall experiences of the death camp. Everything in the poem is "black milk", from literally digging their own graves to the random murders that take place as they dig. It is also specifically to do with the Hebrew scriptures where the land of milk and honey is referred to as paradise. Black Milk is symbolic of the fact that this new Jewish land is filled with nothing but death.
Graves In The AIr Symbol
The "graves in the air" in Line 4 are symbolic of the fact that despite the men in the poem digging actual graves in the ground, the majority of the Jews murdered in death camps were not buried at all but were burned, leaving them with no body to bury, and no grave at all. The "grave in the air" symbolizes the fact that they have gone up in smoke and not in graves.
Sparkling Stars Symbol
The 'sparkling stars in the sky" are symbolic of the guard's Romanticism and fondness of the literary and artistic movement in Germany. He sees the beauty in what is around him, despite that fact that what is actually around him is barbaric, torturous, and ugly. He sees only beauty.
