Tadeusz Borowski's short story "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen," taken from a story collection of the same name, concerns life in a Nazi concentration camp. The narrator is in a portion of the camp nicknamed "Canada," which puts him in a relatively favorable position: he is one of the prisoners who helps to unload newcomers from their trains and collect their belongings. Over the course of the story, the narrator's disgust with what he has to do increases. After the first train is unloaded, Borowski presents us this ghastly picture:
In the corners amid human excrement and abandoned wrist-watches lie squashed, trampled infants, naked little monsters with enormous heads and bloated bellies. We carry them out like chickens, holding several in each hand.
The monstrousness of the task before him begins to mount, compounded by the knowledge that nearly everyone who had just come...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
off the trains would momentarily be killed.
The narrator's disgust transforms into rage. He says:
It is impossible to control oneself any longer. Brutally we tear suitcases from their hands, impatiently pull off their coats. Go on, go on, vanish! They go, they vanish. Men, women, children. Some of them know.
But this anger eventually dissipates, because where can it go? There is no resistance available to them; the narrator briefly considers escape before remembering "guards are watching, their automatics ready." During a conversation with his friend Henri, he finally snaps. As they wait for another train, the narrator says, "I'm not going to unload it! I can't take any more." But then he does.
By the end of the story, the narrator is thoroughly broken. All that matters is pure survival. He says, "[O]thers may be dying, but one is somehow still alive, one has enough food, enough strength to work." He has become what the prisoners refer to as a "Muslim," someone whose body and spirit have been completely destroyed. In the last paragraph, as an SS detachment runs toward him, he makes no gesture of resistance. He doesn't even think about it. He simply moves out of their way.