Tadeusz Borowski's "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber"

Borowski is a polish writer and was incarcerated in the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau for two years, at the age of twenty. In this story, Borowski writes about his own experience in the death camps, perhaps as a way to externalize his feelings of guilt, but also as to not let people forget these acts of horror. "The narrator's dispassionate tone in his stories,as he describes senseless cruelty and mass murder, individual scenes of desperation, or the eccentric emotions of people about to die, continue to shock many readers. Borowski is certainly describing a world of antiheroes, those who survive by accommodating themselves to things as they are and avoiding acts of heroism." (Norton Anthology, p. 2770) The narrator is a polish prisoner at the Birkenau concentration camp. He is not however just a regular prisoner, for his position gives him privileges to food and clothes, as he works under the German Nazis, transporting and unloading people that were arriving at the camp.

How does the “politeness” of the title mock the content of the story? Can you find other examples of such mockery within the story?

The politeness of the title creates a contrast with the actual acts of gruesome murder that were being committed in the camps. There was absolutely no consideration for the victims that were treated worse than cattle. I think this politeness is meant to draw attention upon the detachment with which the Nazis but even some of the workers, went about with their acts. For example on page 2774, just after describing how tough the conditions in the camps, the narrator explains how carefree he was: "Several of us are sitting right now on a top bunk swinging our legs in a carefree manner. We take out white, extravagantly baked bread: crumbling, falling to pieces, a little provoking in taste, but, for all that, bread that had not been molding for weeks. (...) Under us, in the block, naked, sweating people mill about." Borowski shows detachment but he is also mocking the bread. I think the sarcasm is used here to resurface how life in the camps was really like. Henri the Frenchman is also very detached from everything that is happening around him. When the narrator asks him if they are good people and explains the rage he feels toward them Henri replies: "Oh, no, quite on the contrary, its normal, foreseen and taken into account. You are tired with this unloading business, you're rebellious, and rage can best be vented on someone weaker. Its even desirable that you should vent it. Its common sense. Compris?" I think these people chose to detach themselves from this gruesome reality in order to survive. However, the narrator can never quite rid himself of his guilt. His vomiting is a metaphorical representation of his attempt to get rid of the guilt that weighs on his soul, and his responsibility in the death of 15000 Jews from Sosnoweic-Bedzin. (Critical Essay on "This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen", Rena Korb)