The Horror of Hatred

A report on Tadeusz Borowskis This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Christopher P. Arndt
#5419106
Dec 04, 2013
TA: John Bachynski

Tadeusz Borowskis This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen presents an unrepressed perspective on
imprisonment within the Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau. A compilation of several of his
short stories regarding life in Auschwitz, the book identifies the realities of human suffering, realization,
and survival within the camp. Not only does Borowski acknowledge and write of the evils of the Nazis
within the camp, but also the capacity for the victims to resort to their own evil actions when their lives
are at risk. Borowski addresses several topics within his various stories, they may be categorized as the
evils of the Nazis toward prisoners within the camp; the evils of the prisoners in order to remain alive;
and personal struggle to retain morality in the face of death. Borowskis stories demonstrate the struggle
of many prisoners to keep from becoming like their captors. In addition the stories tell of Borowskis
personal struggles within the camp and after the end of the Holocaust.
Borowskis primary intention for his book is to make clear the crimes of the Nazi soldiers who
oversaw the concentration camps. Borowski never fails to address the primary reason for the existence of
the concentration camps: the heinous ideals of the Nazi regime. Each story within the book provides
examples of Nazi war crimes, but several stand as direct examples of these crimes. The story, the People
Who Walked On takes the perspective of a prisoner within the main Auschwitz camp. The story draws
attention to the great difference between Auschwitz and its sister-camp, Birkenau; the illusion of luxury
and comfort within Auschwitz; and finally, the unrelenting genocide within both camps. The main
character within the story recalls wandering the camp on nights when he could not sleep. His comments
on what he saw are as follows:
The roads were completely black, but I could distinctly hear the far-away hum of a thousand
voices the procession had moved on and on. And then the entire sky would light up; there
would be a burst of flame above the wood and terrible human screams. 1
He then describes himself as feeling, numb, speechless, frozen with horror. 2. These words are meant to
demonstrate the overwhelming thought of genocide and the extreme effect on those witnessing it, for no
1 Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (New York:
Penguin Books, 1976). 84-85.
2 Ibid, 85.
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words can truly summarize such a sickening display of death. Wishing to show that the horrors of a
concentration camp extend far beyond Genocide alone, Borowski details several other crimes. Within the
story This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, the main character is faced with the job of Canada, a
labour worker who was required to clear the transports of soon-to-be gas chamber victims. Whilst doing
the work that is required of him, the man sees that several other men [S.S. troops] are carrying a small
girl with only one leg. [] They throw her on the truck on top of the corpses. She will burn alive along
with them.3. Witnessing such an atrocity, along with the fact that he is sending thousands of people to
their deaths, the main character breaks down. This excerpt and story as a whole is intended to demonstrate
that nowhere within the camps, is death and evil unavoidable. The main character, being a Canada
member, is forced to confront the evils of his captors and is faced with the fact that he is aiding in the
killing of innocent people. The story is meant to address the cold-blooded murder of individuals as well as
the masses from the trains. Borowskis longest story Auschwitz, our Home (a letter) takes the perspective
of a prisoner in Auschwitz, who is chosen to work in the camp hospital as a medical assistant. He details
his experiences in Auschwitz whilst writing to his love, who is imprisoned in Birkenau. Due to the main
characters role within the camp, he is able to take a unique perspective being both valued for his work
but still seen as a prisoner. Having such a unique perspective, the main character has witnessed a great
deal of the evils within the camp. In his third letter, the main character comments on the lives of women
within the camps. He refers to the women of Birkenau and their difficult existence, but then goes on to
speak of the few women in Auschwitz residing in Block No. 10. He writes of them to his lover, stating,
The women of No. 10 are being artificially inseminated, injected with typhoid and malaria germs, or
operated on. [] The women are kept behind barred and boarded-up windows 4. The main character
feels great sympathy for the women, often writing as if he fears that his lover would find the same fate.
These writings, however, do not draw any more comments on the horrors subjected to the women, likely

3 Ibid, 46.
4 Ibid, 108.
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because knowledge of the atrocities is more than enough to show the sickening actions and ideals of the
Nazis who run block No. 10. In his seventh letter, the same character writes to his love of the actual
genocide occurring around him. He shows mixed feelings on the matter, demonstrating a subjective
horror at the events but also projecting an objective point of view on the wastefulness of the cremations.
On the matter of the crematoriums he writes, so much fat and bone is wasted in the burning, so much
flesh, so much heat! But elsewhere they make soap out of people, and lampshades out of human skin, and
jewellery out of the bones.5. Following this, the writer immediately changes subject to his work within
the camp, likely due to the emotional volatility of the previous subject. Because of Borowski and those
like him, who write and speak of what they have witnessed, Nazi crimes and atrocities are not forgotten.
Great deals of writing detail the horrors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. Today, any person may go to
the camps and experience the feeling of evil and pain that permeates the air. They may step into the gas
chambers, and witness the nail-marks on the wall from those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis.
Visitors may step into block No. 10, or may step into one of the other blocks and view the collected hair;
at one time primed to be made into wigs for rich German women. Thanks to those who understand the
extremity of the Holocaust, the atrocities of the Nazis are not forgotten.
Unknown to many, the Nazis were not the only people within the concentration camps to commit
great evils. Many prisoners of the camps were as guilty of crimes and atrocities as any individual Nazi
was. Borowskis writing addresses these internal evils in the same stride as the external Nazi crimes. In
his writing, he reveals the crimes of the Sonderkommando, prisoners who volunteered for many
specialized jobs within the camps namely providing aid with the gas chamber operation, and the disposal
of bodies. Borowski also addresses crimes of passion between prisoners and other victims of the Nazis, as
well as other, more animalistic horrors committed by the prisoners. The role and perspectives of the
Sonderkommando members is best shown in Auschwitz, Our Home (A Letter) as the main character
speaks with an old friend of his from a different Kommando unit. The characters friend had also joined
the Sonderkommando after imprisonment and had since been made to work in the gas chambers, whereas
5 Ibid, 131.
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the main character was made to work in the hospital. The main character asks the friend whats new, to
which the friend responds that he had just gassed a Czech transport earlier. When the main character then
directs his question to the mans personal life the man responds by describing a new method for burning
people, stating, you take four little kids with plenty of hair on their heads, then stick the heads together
and light the hair. The rest burns by itself and in no time at all the whole business is gemacht [finished].6.
The man then justifies his actions by arguing that, here in Auschwitz we must entertain ourselves in
every way we can. Otherwise who could stand it? 7. The main character does not accept this justification,
seeing it as horrific to justify retaining mental composure through brutal murder. This conversation
between the two men serves to demonstrate that prisoners could just as easily fall into the path of evil,
and that victims can just as easily derive pleasure from torture and murder, as their captors. In This Way
for the Gas, Borowski demonstrates that normally peaceful men can fall into crimes of passion. The
main character witnesses a woman, departing a transport, being followed by a child claiming to be her
own. One of the characters fellow Canada force members becomes increasingly furious with the
woman for her abandonment. The character witnesses the mans anger, detailing him yelling,
Ah, you bloody Jewess! So youre running from your own child! Ill show you, you whore!
His huge hand chokes her, he lifts her in the air and heaves her on to the truck [for corpses] like a
heavy sack of grain. Here! And take this with you, bitch! and he throws the child at her feet. 8
The main character is witnessing a man whose life has been taken from him and yet retains a crooked
morality, having been surrounded by evil for so long. Such being the case, he in enraged by the mothers
abandonment of her child and in a crime of passion, throws her in with the worthless corpses, as he sees
her as worthless. Borowski, although demonstrating that the crime was one of passion, wished to show
the evils of the prisoners that are overlooked due to their bleak existence; he wishes for them not to be
overlooked. In his story The Supper, Borowski demonstrates the animalistic nature of men without hope.
6 Ibid, 142.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid, 43.
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The story details the execution of several Russian soldiers before a crowd of starving prisoners. As the
Russians are shot dead, the crowd rushes the platform and begins eating the dead men. Later the main
character of the story is spoken to by a fellow prisoner of how delicious human brains are, even when
eaten raw.9 In writing this story, Borowski is brief and lacks detail, likely so show how black-and-white
the decision to consume the men was, to those who were starving and had their morals quashed by their
meager existence within the camp. Often the crimes of victims are overshadowed by those of the
perpetrators, Borowski expresses a desire to correct this. He wishes to show that, although the crimes of
the Nazis were great, the crimes of the prisoners within Auschwitz are a matter that needs to be known.
Having addressed the immoral actions of both the perpetrators and victims of the Holocaust,
Borowski turns his writing toward the struggle of concentration camp prisoners to retain their morality
within a place in which it is so lacking. Within his story a Day at Harmenz, Borowski writes of a member
of the labour force in Auschwitz and his work, struggles, and personal issues during the work day. Early
in the story, the main character is wronged by a Jew named Becker. Throughout the conflict between the
character and Becker, Becker steals from, lies to, and threatens to have the main character taken to the gas
chamber. As the day progresses, the Nazis take account of the prisoners who are to be executed. By the
evening, Becker approaches the main character stating that he (Becker) has been chosen for execution;
and asks the main character for some food before he dies. The main character, holding onto his morality,
offers the man who put his life at risk some of his food 10. Borowski shows that morality does exist within
the camp, regardless of the hopeless situation that the prisoners face. In contrast, Borowski also
demonstrates a lack of action within the prisoners in Auschwitz, Our Home (A Letter). The main character,
with the Kommandos, marches through the camp. As they are made to stop at the front gate, multiple
trucks of women heading for the gas chambers pass them by. The main character details the interaction,
writing,

9 Ibid, 152-156.
10 Ibid, 80-81.
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The women stretched out their arms and pleaded: Save us! We are going to the gas chambers!
Save us! And they rode slowly past us the ten thousand silent men and then disappeared from
sight. Not one of us made a move, not one of us lifted a hand. 11
The character is displeased with himself and his fellow prisoners for not taking action, even though they
greatly outnumbered the Nazi soldiers. He struggles with the decision between his own safety and doing
what is right. The same topic is addressed in The People Who Walked On, as the main character speaks
with a Block Elder of the womens section of Birkenau. She begins asking the character whether he
believes that the Nazis will be punished after death. She asks whether they could go unpunished, to which
the character responds, I think that for those who have suffered unjustly, justice alone is not enough.
They want the guilty to suffer unjustly too. Only this will they understand as justice. 12. The main
characters response begs the moral question of whether unjust crimes deserve unjust punishment. Once
again Borowski demonstrates the great moral questions that the prisoners must ponder, all whilst
surrounded by what could possibly the greatest example of immorality in the history of mankind; thus
blurring the line of what is moral and what is not.
Borowskis greatest challenge of having been a prisoner at Auschwitz is that of learning to live
life after being freed from captivity. Borowski struggles to hold on to his memories of the atrocities of
Auschwitz, for sake of telling them to future generations. This struggle is shown in Auschwitz, Our Home
as the main character tells his love to, look carefully at everything around you, and conserve your
strength. For a day may come when it will be up to us to give an account of the fraud and mockery to the
living to speak up for the dead.13. Borowski projects his fear of losing his memories of the camp, be it
due to time or personal decision to forget his pain and the pain of others. Later in the story, Borowski
reveals another personal fear that emerged after the end of the Holocaust, but originated within the camp.
The main character in the story asks his love,
11 Ibid, 116.
12 Ibid, 90.
13 Ibid, 115-116.
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If the Germans win the war, what will the world know about us? They will erect huge buildings,
highways, factories, soaring monuments. Our hands will be placed under every brick, and our
backs will carry the steel rails and the slabs of concrete. 14
Borowski is revealing his fear of being lost in time, and the overwhelming burden of later realizing that
he is representative of a whole race of prisoners. He wishes to demonstrate that he did not lose hope, not
for his own survival alone, but also for the survival of his story.
In his final story The World of Stone, Borowski reveals his greatest struggle. Above remembering
his pain; above the fear of fading into the past; above the actual torments of Auschwitz and the Nazis;
Borowskis greatest struggle is learning to cope in a world that he did not expect to return to. During his
imprisonment, Borowski had one task for himself. If he were to survive, he wished to reveal the truly epic
and horrifying scale to which evil was committed by Man during the time of the Holocaust. Returning to
the world that he knew before the war, Borowski struggles to balance the reality in which he lives with
the mindset that he needed to adapt during his struggle. He then set himself to writing of his experiences,
thus the stories within this book were written. Returning to the story The World of Stone, Borowski
concludes his writing by stating that,
with a tremendous intellectual effort I attempt to grasp the true significance of the events, things,
and people I have seen. For I intend to write a great, immortal epic, worthy of this unchanging,
difficult world chiselled out of stone.15
The book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen was published in 1956; five years after
Tadeusz Borowski committed suicide at the age of twenty-eight.

14 Ibid, 132.
15 Ibid, 180.
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Addendum: I wish to state that, as the writer of this paper, I have a very strong connection to the
topic that this book has addressed. This past summer, I joined a high school trip to Europe. On this trip we
visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. As I read this book and wrote this paper I found that I had
flashbacks to memories of being within the camp. I vividly recall breaking-down within the gas chamber
at Auschwitz (the first place to use Zyklon B for human extermination), I can still feel the pain of the
victims of such cruelty. I can still see the scratch marks in the wall from men, women, and children trying
to breathe amidst the gas. I can still see the large glass container of human hair, shorn from the heads of
Jewish women, to later be used for wig-making. I can picture every detail that Tadeusz Borowski wrote
of. My aims in mentioning this are very clear. I wish for it to be seen that the attempts of Borowski, and
all others who commit themselves to teaching of the Holocaust; to make clear the horrific events of the
1940s, have been successful. If nothing else, they have reached a single eighteen year-old guy from
Canada. I have broken down in tears three times, whilst writing this report.

Works Cited:
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.