“‘Pick up your child, woman!’ ‘It’s not mine, sir not mine!’ she shouts hysterically and runs on, covering her face with her hands. She wants to hide, she want to reach those who will not ride the trucks, those who will go on foot, those who will stay alive. ”
- In this particular section in the story a late shipment of jews come into the camp and the people are being evacuated from the train. What is important of these prisoners is that some know the drill of if you go on the car they will take you to die but if they take you by foot then you will live. The woman that gets off this train tries to catch up to the group that will be walking to camp and leaves her screaming child behind.
- This particular example stood our to me because the bond between a mother and child is thought to be one that is unbreakable and may stories have been written of acts in which the mother would gladly give up her own life for her child’s, while in this one it seems to be the complete opposite.
- Its significance is that shows the lengths that one will go to in order to try and survive, letting go of all ties that make us human such as love.
- Is self preservation so important, that we are willing to abandon what make us human?
Ismael,
The scenes with the mothers and the babies are among the most powerful in Borowski’s story. What does it mean that mothers not only choose to leave their babies in the train car, but run away when asked to claim the babies? Borowski is giving us a horrific window into the kind of pressure these women are under and reminding us of one of the central messages of this text – that we are all capable of behaving inhumanely.
JS