This Way for the Gas Ladies and GentlemanA reflection on the book by Thadeus Borowitz
"Between two throw-ins in a soccer game, right behind my back, three thousand people had been put to death." (page 84) Can you imagine? In a time period of probably ten minutes three thousand people were brutally killed in a gas chamber. This number is a minute figure compared to the millions and millions of people that were killed during this awful time period. In Tadeusz Borowski's book This way for the Gas,Ladies and Gentlemen, he portrays the awful mass murders, the competiveness, and the fear that these people experienced. How could people that were not Nazi's go on killing? Why did they not revolt? The answer to these questions is fear. "The Rottenfuhrer raised his hand and slammed him across the face with all his strength." (page 66) This man was punished because he did not stand at attention and take his hat off while addressing an officer. There were people that had lost all hope. These people were known as "Muslims" throughout the concentration camps. These individuals had been scarred so badly by what they had seen that they basically became vegetables. They walked around the camps with their heads down, waiting for their turn to go to the gas chambers. They had no will to live.
However, living in fear drove them to be strong willed individuals. These people were the ones that were usually non-Jews that got put in the prisons for something that the Nazi's felt was wrong. This was an underlying fear that led them to become competitive among one another. The competitvness within the camps was enourmous. This 'will' could also mean that they felt their stories needed to be heard in hopes that killers would be punished as badly as they were. Power over the prisoners but not over themselves. "Julek also writes about your mother, that she prays for us and trusts that we shall return and that we will always be together. " In the corners amid human excrement and abandonded wrist-watches lie squashed, trampled infants, naked little monsters with enormous heads and bloated bellies. Telling them about how they should deal with Jews whom are misbaving and what could happen to them if they do not reprimand the Jews. These were prisoners that just had a little more luck. These men and women that did survive developed a strong will that helped to drive them on. To survive a life full of sick competiveness, never-ending fear, and the loss of loved ones is a huge accomplishment. They are the ones that handled the millions of corpses.
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GasLadies Gentlemen,
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Tadeusz Borowski's,
loved ones,
thousand people,
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