What metaphor does Elie Wiesel use in "Hope, Despair, and Memory" to make a pathos-based argument? How is it used to make said argument? (Please give an in-depth answer to help me better understand, thanks!)

Explain the effect of the juxtaposition of the following lines that serve as a beginniing to the new section that begins on page nine: anguish. german soldiers-with their steel helmets and their deaths-head emblem. still, our first impressions of the germans were rather reassuring.