— 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?
–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 to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
The significance of the story’s title lie in the irony it encases. It delivers the message of leading people into their deaths in a showman-esque, or even yet in a polite respectable tone. The entire story depicts the prisoners in a bug-like or vermin-like fashion, detailing their movements as swarming and comparing them to pests. Borowski titles the story with a sense of respect, although a detached one as seen from the narrator of the story.
–Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
“This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” is an ironic title for a fictional story taking place in Auschwitz. “Ladies and Gentlemen” is a polite and formal way to greet individuals, however these people are being sent to gas chambers. I believe Borowski is mocking the Germans in his title and implies that the Germans are actually the one with no respect and manners. The story compares the prisoners to insects and animals, but there are a few instances where the Germans use manners. His title questions the respectability of the Germans as their actions were animal-like and emphasizes that the prisoners were not the animals in this instance.
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
The title ” this way to the gas,ladies and gentlemen” is such a strange combination. Since it sounds fully polite through using terms”lady and gentlemen”, while the context is a requirement for the death of prisoner. Through using the irony title, author succeeds in establishing a strong contrast between humanization and dehumannization. On one hand, nazi seems to retain a little bit of humanization to some extent given the polite greeting.On the other hand, prisoners are treated like bugs. They are naked in the Concentration camp。
As my classmate has mentioned above, I do believe using this irony title is a try to mock how hypocritical and cruel the Nazi is.
–Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
This title is very strange for a few different reasons. First, it comes off as an introduction to a show or play. Clearly this is the complete opposite as people are being led to death or forced labor. This quote makes it seem like the Nazis are formal and polite when they are not. They are barbaric and have no respect for life which contradicts the title of the short story.
— What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
The fact that the same victims whether by force or fear ended up participating in this horror. Psychologically this torture brought the worst in them eventhough they were part of it, like the mother that denied her child or the job that the narrator performed at the train station, and how himself felt anger towards the people he saw going in the trucks because he thought it was their fault he was there. Also the way he felt about going back to the camp site after working at the train station, feeling like it was a relief to be at the camp because there he felt he could at least enjoy another day of being alive.
It was also the dehumanization not only on behalf of the Nazis but themselves too, the prisioners, the victims.
–Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
I think the title is significant because its representing a desensitization to the violence. It almost sounds friendly or even polite similar to how a tour guide might speak to a group of people on a tour, where they would say “This way ladies and gentlemen” . Despite this the title is actually saying this way to your death ladies and gentleman.
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
Answer: The title seems strange because the circumstances surrounding the Holocaust gives a bad vibe and the title it more of good energy then it should. It is as if the title is someone saying welcome when you enter a museum.