Author Archives: n.beltran1

“This way to the gas, Ladies and Gentleman” is unlike most other World War 2 pieces written about the tragedy that was concentration camps. The narrator’s indifferent attitude towards the people getting off the train that he knew were going to their death was rather depressing in a way. At one point the narrator even says “better them than me.” Honestly, you can’t blame him, though. Everybody in the camp knew that they were gonna die, some of them just wanted to hold out for the longest possible time. The situations they were put in were truly dehumanizing and left so many people. Perhaps this dehumanization shows the desperation of people when they are close to death. While this work is fiction is isn’t to absurd to think there were actually camp laborers who didn’t bat an eye to the horrors they witnessed, or mothers who would abandon their children to attempt to stay alive for a bit longer. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a bad thing. It’s just nature to have some sort of survival instinct. It’s the fact that these people were thrown into such horrific scenarios that they had to resort to such “barbaric” actions. The story also makes a lot dehumanizing remarks about all the prisoners in the camps. The narrator really just has a very depressing view of the whole scenario, but can you really blame him? After all, even the sad woman who was heading to the gas took pity on him. Perhaps for losing his humanity and becoming a slave to the people who imprisoned him.