–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?
A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
The grey-haired woman is showing sympathy for him. She understands he is also a victim here, as everyone is. It’s a strange moment, that compassion is seen here when so little compassion is shown in their environment. It was touching. She is probably able to see he does not like doing what he has to, but he has no choice.
–Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
The title is strange because it almost sounds humourous in an awful kind of way. The choice of words is also ironic. When we hear,” Ladies and Gentlemen” it is usually associated with being greeted, similar to how we hear television personalities speak. Yet, that something that is being “introduced”, is a gas chamber where millions of Jews were killed. I also realized that the use of Ladies and Gentlemen is ironic in its own separate way because of how dehumanized they were in the chambers. That phrase is too polite of a word to describe and introduce something so horrific.I don’t understand why Borowski chose this title because it feels like he is downplaying the events that took place. One idea I did have was maybe the title was referring to how the Nazis manipulated them. We talked in class about how they would tell them that they were going to the showers but instead, they would be gassed.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
Although everyone knows about the Holocaust, I don’t think many people know the actual horrors that actually happen. For example, I was taken aback by the notion of “Canada.” I was not aware of the way in which people were transported to the camps. The fact that so many infants were left behind on the train was heart-wrenching. As cruel as it seems, at the end of the day, everyone just wants to survive. Another horrific thing was the disabled being thrown into the pile with the corpses which would go straight to the crematory. The poor people were burned alive. On the less gruesome side, I didn’t know so many Polish and people from other nationalities were in camps too. I had thought it was just the Jews. Overall, the story portrayed some of the pinnacles of human desperation.
Hi Lola,
Nice discussion post.
Same as you I also didn’t know that there were other people beside Jews that were sent in concentration camps. I think this story was so detailed and made the Holocaust much scarier than I had thought. The stories that the author mentioned were horrible.
Even though I had a lot of information about the Holocaust I think through this text I learned much more details about the events that took place during that time.
–“Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
To this day, what those people face will remain something inexplicable with words and even less with the mind, to arrive at such thoughts is far beyond our reach. I think this question arises from a moment of total frustration and suffering in which he no longer understands who is good and who is bad, what is good and what is bad. The narrator, seeing that he has to carry all the bodies of those children in his arms, no longer thinks, and I find this somewhat understandable. As the story follows we find him in a physically and mentally exhausted position, vomiting and with minimal strength to face the cold days of Auswickz.
A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
When the tall, grey-haired woman whispered “My poor boy” to the narrator as a way to pity him and his situation. Even though she knows shes going to die, she can sympathize with the fact that her death takes her away from this terrible situation and that the narrator will still have to live his life and do this job and continue witnessing all thats going on and slowly eat away at his sanity. This sentence even took the narrator back and caused him to lose himself trying to understand why the woman even said that.
What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
Even though I have already learned most of life in nazi concentration camps through school and field trips in the past, the important message sent was the constant reminder of the horrors many innocent people have faced, which was not even more than 70 years ago. Usually these type of events in stories make you think it was all fiction, but the true disturbing part is the fact that it was real and more brutal than anyone could imagine. Tragic events like this need to be remembered forever and constantly reminded so history can never repeat itself, and the perspective of those who suffer should always be represented in stories.