What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
I think the most surprising thing I’ve learned is that some camp prisoners are allowed to have different kinds of food, specifically kinds of food looted from new prisoners. On page 696, the prisoner is in the middle of “unwrap the bacon, the onion, we open a can of evaporated milk.” I had always thought that the prisoners were either fed with inhuman food or starved to death. Even though prisoners are allowed to eat looted food, somehow it makes the already egregious act of concentration camps more vile. I can’t imagine what the prisoners are feeling but it feels like they are being conditioned to be happy when new prisoners are arriving at these camps because it means they get to have decent meals. It is one thing to commit genocide by killing but it is another when they strip these prisoners of their humanity.
Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
There seems to be some element of irony in the title. If we did not know any better, we would think that dying by suffocation in a gas chamber is the worst possible ending for a precious human life. But for these prisoners it’s actually eerily comforting, knowing that they will not have to suffer any more in the concentration camp. The last thing the prisoners will know is that they think that they are taking a shower. All the people who are sent directly to the gas chambers will know no more evil. They all have suffered immensely by being dragged from their houses, crammed into a train like they are livestock going to the slaughter house. The gas chambers will free them, they will not have to be slaves, they will not have to starve, they will not have to walk around naked, and most importantly they will not have to be stripped of their humanity anymore.
I agree with you that one of the things we become aware of through Borowski’s work is the different tiers or levels of prisoners in the camp. Borowski’s narrator is part of the camp’s labor force, so he has liberties that other prisoners do not have. You are correct that there is a lot of irony in the title, but I think that the irony comes from the portrayal of the Nazis as acting like they are very civilized, while in actuality they are behaving like barbarians. I don’t think that Borowski’s intent is to suggest that there is anything positive at all about Jews being sent to the gas chambers.