In Romanian folklore God made man out of clay, and clay was perceived to be black. Thus the first humans were black-skinned. It was later, during the time of Cain and Abel that God punished the murderous Cain by bleaching his skin. This figure in black hue, reminiscent of the Romanian folk lore for Herman Wald is a direct reaction to the Holocaust. He wrote: “Let these lit-up eyes be an eternal warning to mankind, that they should never relapse into this animalism that has shocked mankind beyond all forgetting.” The artist imbues his Cain with his pitiful features and stance with the hope that he will never again commit such an atrocity.