This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Penguin Modern Classics)

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As they finish unloading the second train, an “enchanting” young blonde woman walks off of the train. She asks Tadek what is going to happen to her, and, when he does not answer, she says that she knows what is going to happen. Under Nazi occupation, Poles were forbidden to attend university or even secondary school. In 1940 Borowski finished his secondary schooling in Nazi-occupied Poland in an underground lyceum. He graduated from high school in 1940 amid the roundups of Jewish residents. He began his underground studies in Polish literature at Warsaw University. His classes met in secret at private homes. While attending university he met Maria Rundo, who would become the love of his life. [1] On the eve of World War II, Poland is ruled by a ‘‘Government of Generals.’’ During the war, the Polish government goes into exile, and Poland comes under foreign rule. After World War II, Poland is re-established as a Soviet satellite state and adopts a Communist government.

The story’s title “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman” has a formal and sophisticated, well-spoken ring. However, the title is untrustworthy as the gas chambers are places no one wants to go to. Even towards the end of the text there’s a line that says “I lie against the cool, kind metal and dream about returning to the camp, about my bunk, on which there is no mattress, about sleep among comrades who are not going to the gas tonight. Suddenly I see the camp as a haven of peace. It is true others may be dying, but one is somehow alive, one has enough food, enough strength to work…” (707). This shows a recognition of having it better off and how no one would want to be in that situation. The prisoners take a break for dinner, and Tadek describes the prisoners eating their soup in complete silence without breaking their rank formations. After everyone has a bowl of soup, the Kapo gets to decide who will get a second bowl. The second bowl is reserved only for the strongest prisoners, while the weaker prisoners are only allowed one serving. But the atrocities he saw and his own culpability never left him. Dead babies, live children thrown into fire pits, cannibalism by those most starved, and the never ending zombie-like march of hundreds of thousands to the gas chambers ruined his soul. The prisoners at Auschwitz witness and endure endless violence at camp. Even in seemingly mundane scenes of camp life, instances and threats of violence are always present. In “The People Who Walked On,” the prisoners play soccer as thousands of Jews march past them on their way to the gas chambers. Instead of reacting or feeling upset, Tadek and the other prisoners try to normalize the experience by refusing to humanize the people walking to the gas chambers. Borowski’s idea that all of the members of the concentration camp community held some responsibility for the atrocities that took place during the Holocaust was initially met with disdain. After the book’s first publication in Poland, the Communist Party criticized the book as amoral and Americanized, and the Catholic Church criticized Borowski’s nihilistic perspective. Survival and MoralityWhen the transport arrives, the prisoners cry out for water and air. As the prisoners are unloaded from the train, they ask to know what will happen to them, but Tadek says he does not speak Polish. After the prisoners have all gotten off the train, the SS officer tells the kommando to clean up the car. Borowski's books are mentioned in the award-winning 1995 novel The Reader ("Der Vorleser") by the German author Bernhard Schlink, in which a former concentration camp guard commits suicide in remorse after reading Borowski's and other survivors' memoirs. The transports swell into weeks, months, years. When the war is over, they will count up the marks in their notebooks—all four and a half million of them. The bloodiest battle of the war, the greatest victory of the strong, united Germany. Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Führer— and four crematoria. My poor boy," she whispers and smiles at me. Then she walks away, staggering along the path. I lean against the side of the train. I am terribly tired. Someone pulls at my sleeve.

Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?Trough all the horror and carnage he writes considerably well, even in parts poetically, "Suddenly I see the camp as a haven of peace. It is true, others may be dying, but one is somehow still alive", And we shall be forgotten, drowned out by the voices of the poets, the jurists, the philosophers, the priests. They will produce their own beauty, virtue, and truth. They will produce religion.”

Soon after a close friend of his (the same friend who had earlier been imprisoned by the Gestapo, and in whose apartment both Borowski and his fiancée had been arrested) [2] was imprisoned and tortured by the Communists. Borowski tried to intervene on his behalf and failed; he became completely disillusioned with the socialist regime. [1] Death [ edit ] Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why? I proceed to put away the food. I tie a piece of rope around the suitcase where the onions and the tomatoes from my father's garden in Warsaw mingle with Portuguese sardines, bacon from Lublin (that's from my brother), and authentic sweetmeats from Salonica. I tie it all up, pull on my trousers, and slide off the bunk. On 6 July 1951, the openly anti-militarist Borowski was buried, of all places, in the military section of Powązki National Cemetery in Warsaw to the strains of ' The Internationale', and was posthumously awarded the highest honours. An obituary notice in Nowa Kultura was signed by 86 writers. Soon after, a special issue of this weekly newspaper appeared with contributions from the elite of Polish literature. Since then, countless texts, poems and articles by and about Borowski have been published, as well as many books in various languages and editions," writes Holocaust survivor Arnold Lustiger in Die Welt. The book "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen" is now also published as part of 'Penguin Classics', further cementing Borowski's place amongst literary greats.

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And now the guards are being posted along the rails, across the beams, in the green shade of the Silesian chestnuts, to form a tight circle around the ramp. They wipe the sweat from their faces and sip out of their canteens. It is unbearably hot; the sun stands motionless at its zenith. The stories here inhabit what Primo Levi calls the grey zone, the compromised, corrupted world where there is no innocence, only degrees of guilt. Borowski had a “good Auschwitz” in the way many people had a “good war”. They didn’t die, and it wasn’t all ghastly all the time. He describes the recreational facilities in Auschwitz. You’ve imagined the gas chambers and Sonderkommando and the ovens, now imagine this: This book is overshadowed by the author’s suicide at the age of 29. This is a distraction, like other author suicides. The work always stands by itself, it is not placed by the grotesque act of suicide into a sphere beyond judgement. Readers encounter the reality inside these words, not outside. And inside these stories the atmosphere is oppressive, the fumes acrid, the stench is unbearable, the company not the best. When I finished this book I looked around. The room was quiet and warm, the fire was on (spring is here, but it’s still cold). One of the cats jumped onto the windowledge for another few hours of birdwatching. I remembered we’re out of marmalade and thanked Tadeusz Borowski for reminding me of that. Whoever takes gold, or anything at all besides food, will be shot for stealing Reich property. Understand? Verstanden?" Alles verstehen," they answer in crematorium Esperanto. All is well—they will not have to move the heavy rails or carry the beams.