- Don’t forget that you need to submit your proposed essay topic (in the form of a question you are asking about your two texts) to me via email by Sunday, November 27th.
- Reminder: Each of you needs to sign up to meet with me on one of the three remaining Mondays of the semester. You can find the sign up HERE.
- Your Modernism in Visual Art posts should be shared to the blog by Monday, December 5th.
- Our reading for this week is Tadeusz Borowski’s “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”. We will be discussing the story in class on Wednesday. Please respond to two of the following questions. Share your responses by Friday, Dec. 2nd.
Please respond to two of the following questions. Remember to compose your answers in complete sentences and to ground your ideas in specific details from the text where appropriate.
- What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
- This story can be described as a kind of “initiation story” for the narrator. How is he changed or transformed by the events of the narrative?
- Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
- A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
- “Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
- Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
A strong example of dehumanization to me was when the text talked about the train doors opening and their being trampled infants on the ground. What made it worse was when the officers would direct the woman to pick them up. This left a strong impression on me because of how sick it was. The level of hatred and zero remorse even for a child shocked me
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
The title of the text is significant because it was a common punishment done during the holocaust. In the camp the jewish would be taken to gas tanks locked and left to be killed . What’s strange about it is how polite it sounds for such a horrible thing. It Sounds almost like a kind invitation . when it’s the complete opposite. I feel like the author is directing it to us and asking us to come along and read about such a horrible point in time.
I like your suggestion that we, the readers, are being addressed in Borowski’s title.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
The most evedent form of dehumanization were the violent mass murders which took place. The disturbing descriptions of terrorized people desperate for air through the chmber windows was particularly horrible. It was clear that these people were seen and treated as less than animals, to the point where the guards were annoyed by their cries for help. The infants were clearly malnourished and treated as waste. The treatment of Jewish children within the text made the greatest impression on me because it shows the inhumaine cruelty perpetuated by the SNS, such that not even the sight of innocent children was able to soften the hearts of these men. This goes to show how ingrained antisemitism was in the minds of these soldiers.
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
This title is significant because it encompasses the deception with which these executions were conducted. It was mentioned that the one charity which was offered to the victims was to be left completely in the blind about their approaching death. Referring to them as ladies and gentlemen creates a false sense of hospitality or respect. This was in fact a common appoach to ensure compliance and facility in murdering the weakest. The title portrays that these Jews were given a false sense of hope as they marched toward execution, believing that they would simply be receiving a shower before being transported to the camps.
Thanks for these comments. By the time Borowski was in Auschwitz, most of Polish Jewry had already been executed. I think that the people arriving on the trains had no illusions at that point about what their fate would be.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
An example of dehumanization in the text was on page 705 when they were carrying the small girl by one leg and one arm. She was screaming and crying, saying, ” Sir, it hurts, it hurts.” I felt pity for the girl because she was crying and telling them that the way that they carried her was hurting her, but they didn’t even listen to her. This can show that the character was ungrateful and cruel because how can someone cry with tears saying that it hurts and not even check on her. The worst thing in all this was they threw her over the corpse in the crematorium, saying she’d be burned with the corpses. This is worst than dehumanization.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
I did not know life in Nazi concentration camps, but after reading the text. I felt so horrible about what these people endured. When I first read the first 2-3 pages, I thought they were working in the crematory, but even worse, people were suffering there. On page 701, they said that the young and the healthy would go to the right, and in the end, they won’t escape death. For me, that means they only want those who can work for them and are healthy. After, they will burn the ones that have been working with them. On the other hand, the ones who can’t work or cannot work will be burning with their corpses.
Mafoune, I am glad that this story showed you aspects of the concentration camps and the Holocaust that you were unaware of.
Q1: This story can be described as a kind of “initiation story” for the narrator. How is he changed or transformed by the events of the narrative?
A1: Since this story is considered to be a sort of “initiation story” for the narrator, the events that seemed to have changed him for the worse when he alongside other prisoners were emptying out the transport trains coming from Sosnowiec-Bedzin: they had to shove all the people out and take all their belongings and any gold they may be hiding, were allowed to take whatever food was in the train, and then remove any infant corpses found after everyone has stepped out of the train. On page 702, it seems that the narrator had cracked after taking out the infant corpses and giving them to the women. He had to witness people being crammed to such an extent during transport and as soon as the doors open, having their belongings taken from them with no regrets along with many children being separated. Through these events, the narrator begins to realize that even though everyone will eventually have death as their fate, some more delayed than others, he finds himself to “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…” (page 707). The narrator’s story is one of many who unfortunately had to endure this horrible life in the concentration camps.
Q2: A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
A2: For context, the narrator was carrying infant corpses and was instructed to pass them to the women, who understandably reacted in horror and covered their eyes. The S.S. officer then asked why didn’t they want them, reaching for his revolver, to which can be implied that he will shoot them dead on the spot. The tall, gray-haired woman quickly responds that she will take the infants from the narrator. “My poor boy” to me seems like she pities the narrator not only having to do such a horrible task but also witness the place he had retrieved the bodies from. If that’s so, it’s completely reasonable because I’m certain nobody, especially a parent, wants to walk in on a bunch of corpses of babies who barely lived and know that their cause of death was inhumane.
The two questions you’ve responded to combine to give us a sense of how much pressure our narrator is under and how traumatic this “initiation” is for him.
3. Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
In “This Way For the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen,” there is extreme detail about the treatment of jews during the Holocaust. The most striking event of this in my opinion is during the transport. Borowski describes this scene in such horror, which is why it made such an impression on me. He describes how the S.S. soldiers had the main character unloading corpses from the trains, and carrying infants by the neck, throwing them onto a truck. On page 702, he says “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.” This scene so clearly highlights how the jews were treated as non-human. They were thrown into trucks and viscously murdered, belongings and clothing ripped from their bodies.
6. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
The stories title holds significance because of the irony. The ironic nature of the title is related to many different aspects of the Holocaust. Firstly the use of “this way for the…” This relates back to the “Camp law” that the prisoners must be deceived until their death. Another aspect it relates to is the second part of the title. referring to the victims as “ladies and gentlemen,” when they are being treated (and killed) like vermin, more specifically, lice. The gas Borowski is referring to is the Cyclone B that was used to gas and essentially exterminate jews and other minority groups during the holocaust. t
In the first example you cite, how do we explain the babies left behind in the train car? I don’t think that anyone has been “viciously murdered” in the trains. What has happened here?
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
I knew before reading the story that the people in the concentration camps did labor for the nazi’s but I never knew what type of labor they did. For example on page 702 it talks about how their jobs were to clean up after the people that died on the trains and carry their bodies out which is seen when, “trampled infants, naked little monsters with enormous heads and bloated bellies. We carry them out like little chickens, holding several in each hand”. This shows how dehumanized they were and they were treated worse than prisoners with the conditions and environment they lived in.
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
When I first read the title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”, I didn’t think it would be about a subject such as the concentration camps because the wording of it seems off. When the title says “Ladies and Gentlemen”, it sounds so respectful and well mannered but concentration camps and the holocaust is the complete opposite of the word respectful. It seems strange to describe such a thing that deprives people from their human characteristics with the words “Ladies and Gentlemen”.
Right, how do you reconcile the polite sound of “ladies and gentlemen” with the brutality of what is actually being described?
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
A dehumanizing moment in this story was at the beginning on page 695, where it states, “But all the same, all of us walk around naked: the heat is unbearable.” This to me stood out because, as we discussed in class, these people were not forced to walk around naked, it was just that hot that they had no choice but to do so. But no person in our world today would walk around fully naked no matter how hot it gets. I think these men and women were treated so horribly that they themselves started to lose their sense of individuality and the human instinct to cover up. That’s where the dehumanization comes in because I can’t imagine how much a person has to go through to get to the point of not thinking of themselves as deserving of privacy or shame in a sense.
“Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
When the narrator asks, “Are we good people?” I think his internal and external selves are having a battle with the task of sending people to the gas chamber. Internally, he feels a conflict with his morals, he knows what’s good and what’s bad and the fact that he’s questioning his actions shows he’s uncomfortable with what he’s doing. But then he tries to ease this discomfort by outwardly saying the opposite of what he was feeling. On page 702, he says, “I feel no pity. I am not sorry they’re going to the gas chamber. Damn them all!”. I believe he says this to convince himself that he’s a good person, but I don’t think a genuinely good person would ever question if they’re good. A good person would show their goodness through their actions more than anything, and that’s where the narrator is struggling in this scene. Also, claiming that he’s a good person and that he’s doing the right thing helps him live without guilt. If he submits to the guilt, he probably would not be able to live with himself. We kind of see this towards the end where he eventually throws up because the reality was too much to handle. I think again that that was his internal self rejecting his external response to what was happening, his body cannot fully accept that what he’s doing is good, and he knows this too.
These are complex questions. Can our narrator continue to consider himself a good person, given what he has participated in? I like your formulation of the internal and external selves.
Something I learned about was the workers in the concentration camps that weren´t exactly nazi soldiers, but not prisoners. I was aware that the prisoners at the concentration camp were used for labor and had assumed that the prisoners would be the only ones doing labor; however, I was wrong. I didn’t think the camps would have staff like we saw in the story.
My interpretation of the old lady saying “My poor boy” is her way of pitying him. The lady is walking to her death, but the protagonist will have to live with the guilt of contributing to this genocide for the rest of his life. At least once the lady dies, she will no longer have to feel any more agony, but the protagonist will have the guilt weigh on him forever. I suppose the message behind this is that it is better to die than to live a miserable life.
I’m confused about your first response. Where do we see characters who are neither prisoners nor Nazis? Our narrator and the men he is working alongside are all prisoners.
A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
The woman pity the narrator, as the woman believes that the narrator is having it worse than her. Where the old woman can keep her humanity and morals till death, the narrator had it worse. The narrator has to live with the guilt of what he did for the rest of his life, and that can be much worse than death. The woman also understands that it wasn’t his choice to do what he did, so it must be difficult at times to carry out some of the assigned.
“Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
I think what the narrator knows is that he is no longer a good person. What he is asking is if they can continue being considered a good person after everything is done, if there is redemption. And because they had been good people and would continue to be good people had it not been for the situation that they were forced in. “… I am furious, simply furious with these people-furious because I must be here because of them.” He doesn’t despise the Jews because of their background, etc, but rather because they were the reason he was forced to be a bad person, when he could have very well live happily and without any sort of guilt had it not been for the Jews. However, as he is mad at them, I don’t think he actually meant what he said afterward, about wanting to beat the Jews. “I can feel sticky moisture on my eyelids. My throat is completely dry”, this quote shows he was also uncomfortable with what was happening at the gas chambers.
I agree that we can look at the narrator’s comments about the Jews as a kind of defense mechanism that protects him from really having to feel the pain and sorrow of what is happening. And of course, it is not the fault of the Jews that they are there; it is the fault of the Nazis.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
Most of us can already draw a picture in our head when we hear the word ‘Nazi Concentration Camps’ but what I did not know was what kind of labor was done by the people in the camps. They were forced to clean up after their own race people had been dead on the trains and would carry them out. This was evident from page 702, “trampled infants, naked little monsters with enormous heads and bloated bellies. We carry them out like little chickens, holding several in each hand.” This description is enough to draw upon the conclusion that the Nazi soldiers had no human emotions and were stone hearted. The people in concentration camp were treated as if they were some pest.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
In “This way for gas ladies and gentlemen”, there are numerous examples of dehumanization that are evident and significant. However, one particular example that made a particularly strong impression on me was the text drawing extreme detail attention on the door of the train being opened and the infants would be trampled on the ground. They were treating ‘breathing’ infants like toy dolls and the soldiers would just grab three or four of them like chicken. Everyone was treated worse than animals. They had zero empathy and remorse for the infants, or even anyone else.
I’m not sure what you mean by “their own race.” Just to be clear, our narrator is a Polish Catholic. The trains that are arriving at the concentration camp are full of Jews. Hitler set out to exterminate the Jews. It is they who will be sent to the gas chambers.
A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
I believe the tall, grey-haired woman wants to make the narrator realize what he is doing is wrong. Throughout the reading, we realize that there were a lot of parts that seemed to be non-human actions just animal instant and cruel. To me, this woman didn’t feel bad for herself but more for the narrator. It wasn’t like she wanted to rebel or show revenge instead it was like she knew that karma was coming for him. I rather die instantly than have to live with the guilt of someone else’s death at my hands. With those words, the old lady said it was like you could never live in peace if the person’s death who you contributed to said that to you right before their death.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
An example of dehumanization that I saw in the text was on page 702, where babies not alive were just left on the trains by their mothers. I didn’t really understand if they were just left there to die or maybe to make the nazis feel some type of sympathy for the babies. Either way, I just left like leaving a baby alone, especially in a horrible time like the holocaust is cruel.
Interesting. If I understand you correctly, the woman’s comment is designed to make our narrator feel worse, not better.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
I learned a lot from this story, but I didn’t know how bad these people were treated at the concentration camps. These people were suffering and treated in a bad/ unfair way. This story shows me how they have to work for the benefits of others, and work hard till they die. In the book, on page 703, “It is hot, terribly hot.Our throats are dry, each word hurts. Anything for a sip of water.” Also, these people didn’t have any food or at least water to survive all the hours of working . This story teaches me to appreciate the minimum thing I get, because sometimes we complain about things that are not even important, compared to other situations.
“Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
When the narrator says “Are we good people”, I think that he feels guilty because he knows he chose to do the bad thing/ bad life, but at the same time he’s not sure of what he feels. This is because he’s questioning himself, meaning that he doesn’t know who he really is. He knew that all the things that were happening were wrong, but he kept doing it because he didn’t have the power to make a change, so this made the narrator a weak person and a “follower”.
Just to be clear, our narrator and the other prisoners who are working at the train depot are suffering. They are being made to do awful things. However, it is the Jews who are arriving on the trains who are being sent to gas chambers and murdered.
“Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
Here I think after witnessing such a horrendous scene he start to question his cause, everyone around him makes it sound like they are in the correct that by killing the jews they are making the world a better place. They call them pigs and beat them if they don’t follow instructions. He witnesses these acts and sees the people in pain and start to questions wether they are doing the right thing. I think he tries to make himself feel better by putting blame on them. “I don’t know why, but I am furious, simply furious with these people”. He tries to take control of the situation by making it in a way that won’t make him feel guilty on that actions that he is doing.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
I think the most shocking thing that they do is how they handle the dead infants and hand them to their mothers, he compares handling them like chickens. It’s surprising to me how lack of empathy they have towards them for them to continue to do that. Making them get rid of all their possession and just sending them to the gas chambers. They suffered so much on those trains that they mentioned corpses pilled up and dead children, just so they can end it right away in the chamber.
I think you are right to suggest that the narrator is lashing out at the Jews in order to feel less awful about his own participation in the events of the day.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
One thing I learned from this story that I didn’t previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps would be that they would burn people alive. On page 705, a young girl with only one leg was thrown onto a truck that was loaded with corpses and she is left there to be burned in the crematorium with the rest of the corpses. I knew that they used gas chambers to kill people, but I had no idea that some people were burned alive alongside the corpses of those who passed.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
An example of dehumanization in the text was when “four men have trouble lifting a fat corpse on to the car, they call others for help, and all together they hoist up the mound of meat” (705). How they referenced the dead female’s body as a “mound of meat” is dehumanizing and made a particularly strong impression on me because they treated the corpses like rotting meat that needs to be disposed of.
Yes, Borowski’s language helps us understand the dehumanization of the camps.
2. This story can be described as a kind of “initiation story” for the narrator. How is he changed or transformed by the events of the narrative?
The narrator is transformed by the events of the narrative because he became conscious of what he was doing. This occurs after the older woman shows sympathy for him when he is in charge of unloading and clearing the trains coming to the camp. All of the sudden he asks if they are good people and this demonstrates how he is realizing the horrors he is seeing and partaking in. Furthermore, in the back of his mind there would always be some form of hesitation now that he knows what he is truly doing.
3. Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
An example of dehumanization in the text is seen when “several other men are carrying a small girl with only leg,” (705) and throw her on top of the pile of corpses while she screams of the pain. This moment left a strong impression on me because of not only the lack of sympathy but because of how they were holding the little girl as if she was an animal. She was burned alive at the end and this example shows the evilness and heartlessness that was happening in the concentration camps.
I wonder how you think he has been transformed – what is the nature of his transformation?
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
“The morbid procession streams on and on—trucks growl like mad dogs’ (Borowski 702). While reading the text this left a strong impression on me since it was dehumanizing the people on the trucks and comparing them to animals, dogs. Dogs which are a symbol of animals that aren’t domestic and need people to control them and told what to do. Also the fact that they used “mad”, it gave a feeling that the people in the truck are crazy and the S.S soldiers didnt take into consideration that the people were all packed and thirsty.
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
The significance of the story’s title is that people specifically Jewish “Ladies and Gentlemen” were taken to concentration camps to work until they starved or died from exhaustion meanwhile others, the weaker group of people were taken to gas chambers so they can “bathe” and this group didnt know that they were going to die from gas poisoning. So what seems strange about the title is that it sounds like they are being welcomed and conducted straight into the “Gas”.
The simile “like mad dogs” is interesting here. It’s the trucks that are being compared to mad dogs – not the people on them, so this simile is taking something inanimate (a truck) and comparing it to something animate (a mad dog). It is an interesting simile, but not an example of dehumanization. Dehumanization is when we treat or refer to a human being in a way that takes away his/her human-ness.
1. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
In his short fiction “This Way for the Gas, Ladies, and Gentlemen,” Tadeusz Borowski depicts a group of wartime captives in a Nazi concentration camp. Numerous factors make the story’s title important. The title alludes to the gas chambers that were employed in concentration camps to execute people. It is implied by the term “this manner for the gas” that the camps were cruel and demeaning, and that detainees were considered expendable and disposable. The phrase “ladies and gentlemen” is particularly essential since it emphasizes how ludicrous and ironic the situation is. In this context, the term “ladies and gentlemen” is used to refer to inmates who are going to be executed in gas chambers. Normally, this phrase is used to address a group of individuals in a courteous and respectful way.
1. What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
One thing I learned from this text was that not all people who were Nazi hated the Jews, the majority of them did feel bad and were sympatric towards them and have a very strong sensation of regret.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
I wasn’t aware that the Jews were also burned alive rather than just being put in gas chambers and having poisoned gas being released. I also learned that the narrator personally felt guilty for this traumatic event that happened. He was responsible for some of the prisoners death and I guess feeling remorse from that POV is expected but also shocking in a sense.
Describe an example of dehumanization in the text. What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why
An example of dehumanization was the section where the mother had to pretend the child wasn’t hers just so she can avoid being sent off. This moment made a strong impression on me because it’s unfortunate to have to sacrifice someone you’re related to in order to try to protect yourself. It goes to show the Nazi’s had no remorse at all for the things they were doing to other people