“This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” By Tadeusz Borowski English 102: The Art of Fiction Prof. Helen Ellis Matthew Seidler ( ) Version 2: Compressed

This presentation has been made available, in both (.pdf) and (.ppt) file formats, at I suggest you print it out with four slides per page (Earth Day!)

The Holocaust The systematic annihilation of Jews by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945 Nazis believed Germans were “racially superior” Influenced by anti-semitism/influx of refugees, USA & Britain did not respond “Realpolitik”

According to Wikipedia… Realpolitik (German: real ("realistic", "practical" or "actual") and Politik ("politics")) is a term used to describe politics based on strictly practical rather than idealistic notions, and practiced without any "sentimental illusions".Germanidealistic

Genocide Raphael Lemkin After the Holocaust Genos = family/tribe/race Cide = to massacre "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” (UN)

Tadeusz Borowski Not Jewish Pole, at Auschwitz in 1943 (involvement in underground literature/poetry meetings, his depression, the fact that he was a poet) Was in prison for two months before being moved to Auschwitz Had many “bad” jobs during the war In his writing, there is no “good” - all the “good” of the outside world is gone inside the concentration camp

The Style Clear, concise, simple, short sentences

The Narrator Nameless 1st person point of view Doesn’t leave out any details * Relation to style Distanced perspective (WHY?), does not voice his opinion, yet still emotionally involved Borowski: Clinical depression, committed suicide (irony) Why write this? Coping mechanism? (autobiographical?) Revolt? (Darfur, Rwanda, etc) Bear witness We’ll talk more about this later

The First Sentence “All of us walk around naked” (107). (note the simplicity) Foreshadows the inhumanity that is to come What’s left after you’ve lost all of your possessions, your clothes, and are stripped of all dignity? References to corpses

Theme: The atrocities man is capable of Borowski: writer, has a family Story shows how anyone is capable of cruelty Ok…prove it!

In Borowski’s Bio… Jan Kott describes the story as “one of the crullest testimonies to what men did to men, and a pitiless verdict that anything can be done to a human being”

Narrator: “ ‘Can’t you see how much easier life is becoming around here: no limit on packages, no more beatings? […] One hears all kind of talk, and, dammit, they’ll run out of people!’”(108) Henri: “ ‘They can’t run out of people, or we’ll starve to death in this blasted camp. All of us live on what they bring’”(108). Later on: “Around us sit the Greeks, their jaws working greedily, like huge human insects” (111).

Continued Workers become dependant on the camp (irony) Contradiction: How can the victims themselves become so inhumane? Loss of all feeling Just as bad as the Nazis?

The Rabbi Scene “He has covered his head with a piece of rag torn off a blanket and reads from a Hebrew prayer book […] wailing loudly, monotonously. ‘Can’t somebody shut him up? He’s been raving as if he’d caught God himself by the feet.’ ‘I don’t feel like moving. Let him rave. They’ll take him to the oven that much sooner’” (109).

Victims become inhumane “ ‘You see, my friend, you see, I don’t know why, but I am furious, simply furious with these people - furious because I must be here because of them. I feel no pity. I am not sorry they’re going to the gas chamber. Damn them all! I could throw myself at them, beat them with my fists. It must be pathological, I just can’t understand…’”(114). (coping mechanism) “ ‘The ramp exhausts you, you rebel - and the easiest way to relieve your hate is to turn against someone weaker. Why, I’d even call it healthy’” (114). Narrator is not a “bad” person!

Victims become inhumane ‘Pick up your child, woman!’ ‘It’s not mine, sir, it’s not mine!’ she shouts hysterically and runs on, covering her face with her hands. She wants to hide, she wants to reach those who will not ride the trucks, those who will go on foot, those who will stay alive. She is young […] and wants to live. But the child runs after her, wailing loudly: ‘Mama, mama, don’t leave me!’ […] ‘Ah, you bloody Jewess! So you’re running from your own child! I’ll show you, you whore!’ His huge hand chokes her […] ‘Here! And take this with you, bitch!’ and he throws the child at her feet. ‘[…] good work” (115). Relation to Elie Weisel’s Night

Loss of Faith “ ‘Religion is the opium of the people,’ Henri […] says sententiously. ‘If they didn’t believe in God and eternal life, they’d have smashed the crematoria long ago’”(109). (Beginning) “The name of God sounds stangely pointless, since the women and the infants will go on the trucks, every one of them, without exception. We all know what this means” (113). (End) Relation to Elie Weisel’s Night

For those who dare to forget the atrocities… Borowski uses graphic depictions of violence

Graphic Depictions Humans are objectified “This is where they load freight for Birkenau: supplies for the concentration of the camp, and people for the gas chambers. Trucks drive around, load up lumber, cement, people - a regular daily routine” (110). References to cattle cars References to pigs, chickens, dogs, etc “stray children […] howling like dogs” (117). “We carry them out like chickens, holding several in each hand” (113).

Graphic Depictions “I go back inside the train; I carry out dead infants; I unload luggage. I touch corpses, but I cannot overcome the mounting, uncontrollable terror. I try to escape from the corpses, but they are everywhere” (116).

Objectifying Humans Efficiency: “For each departing truck he enters a mark; sixteen gone means one thousand people, more or less […] The marks swell into thousands, the thousands into whole transports, whhich afterwards we shall simply call ‘from Salonica’ […] the new prisoners […] will receive serial numbers…”(113).

Graphic Depictions of Violence “trucks growl like mad dogs. I shut my eyes tight, but I can still see corpses dragged from the train, trampled infants, cripples piled on top of the dead, wave after wave […] I am not sure if all of this is actually happening, or I am dreaming. There is a humming inside my head; I feel that I must vomit” (114). Contradiction --> he does have feelings!

“Again weary, pale faces at the windows, flat as though cut out of paper, with huge, feverishly burning eyes” (115).

Irony “ ‘Meine Herrschaften, this way, ladies and gentlemen, try not to throw your things around, please. Show some goodwill’ he says courteously”(112). Meine Herrschaften = my rule

Irony “Trucks leave and return, without interruption, as on a monstrous conveyor belt. A Red Cross van drives back and forth […] it transports the gas that will kill these people. The enormous cross on the hood, red as blood, seems to dissolve in the sun” (113).

Irony After vomiting… “Suddenly I see the camp as a haven of peace. It is true, others may be dying, but one is somehow still alive, one has enough food, enough strength to work” (118).

Victims are “systematically” annihilated “serial numbers” “carry them out like chickens” “Trucks leave and return […] as on a monstrous conveyor belt” “he enters a mark; sixteen gone means one thousand people”

Power of Words (cont. of “Why write this?”) Story is a means of revolting against the enemies and to speak for those who cannot Lack of silence = victory for humanity To go face to face with death, and live to write about it = oppressors lose