''This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen,'' also known as ''Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber,'' is a collection of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

by Tadeusz Borowski, which were inspired by the author's

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

experience. The original title in the

Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...

was ''Pożegnanie z Marią'' (''Farewell to Maria''). Tadeusz Borowski, Barbara Vedder, ''This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen'', Penguin Classics
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

Following two year imprisonment at Auschwitz, Borowski had been liberated from the Dachau concentration camp in the spring of 1945, and went on to write his collection in the following years in Stalinist Poland. The book, translated in 1959, was featured in the Penguin's series "Writers from the Other Europe" from the 1970s.

Overview

Borowski was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

in 1942. He was not a part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II against the Nazis in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, but his fiancée was. She was captured after falling into a trap set by the Nazis, and sent to a concentration camp. When she did not return home for the night, Borowski became worried, and started looking for her, only to end up falling in the same trap. He was caught and subsequently incarcerated at Auschwitz

death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

for two years. He was sent on a

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Conven ...

to the Dachau concentration camp ahead of the Soviet advance, and in the spring of 1945 liberated by the US Seventh Army.Chris Power (2011-08-25)
"A brief survey of the short story part 35: Tadeusz Borowski
Books, The Guardian. Borowski was not Jewish, but was detained at Auschwitz and Dachau as a political prisoner. His views were therefore different from the postwar narrations of the Jewish concentration camp survivors. In a searing and shockingly satirical prose Borowski detailed what life-and-death felt like in the German

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

,Karen Bernardo (2014)
This Way For The Gas by Tadeusz Borowski.
Summary & Analysis. Storybites.com. including his revelations about the poisonous relationships between the prisoners themselves.Joanna Lenartowicz (2011/11/30)
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Tadeusz Borowski.
Literature at Culture.pl. The short stories in his collection are linked by the themes as well as the presence of the main character Tadek, who serves the role of the narrator as well as the book's focal point. To a large degree the narrations are autobiographical. Tadek is a condensed version of Tadeusz and there is a high likelihood that Borowski wrote only from his personal experience. However, the two personalities (the author, and the narrator) themselves are different. Tadek is a survivalist with a hard shell. Borowski, as described by his followers and people who knew him well, was a heart-centered leader and a man who nobly helped others and did not worry about himself.

Literary structure of the collection

The book was featured in Penguin's series "Writers from the Other Europe" from the 1970s.

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

was the general editor, and the series included authors such as

Danilo Kiš Danilo Kiš (; born Dániel Kiss; 22 February 1935 – 15 October 1989) was a Yugoslav novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator. His best known works include ''Hourglass'', ''A Tomb for Boris Davidovich'' and '' The Encyclopedia of ...

Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. In 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academ ...

Jiří Weil Jiří Weil (; 6 August 1900, Praskolesy – 13 December 1959, Prague) was a Czech writer of Jewish origin and Holocaust survivor. His noted works include the two novels '' Life with a Star'' (''Život s hvězdou''), and '' Mendelssohn Is on the ...

, and

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himself ...

, among others. The short stories contained in this volume include: # "Pożegnanie z Marią" ("Farewell to Maria") # "Dzień na Harmenzach" ("A Day in Harmenza") # "Proszę państwa do gazu" ("This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen") # "Śmierć powstańca" ("Death of an Insurrectionist") # "Bitwa pod Grunwaldem" ("Battle of Grunwald") With the author's permission, the volume was expanded to include further stories: # "Chłopiec z Biblią" ("A Boy with a Bible") # "U nas, w Auschwitzu..." ("Among Us, in Auschwitz...") # "Ludzie, którzy szli" ("The People Who Walked By") # "Ojczyzna" ("The Motherland") # "Ofensywa styczniowa" ("The January Offensive") In the stories Borowski takes a "

behavioral Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as we ...

" approach – he only describes the behavior and outward reactions of the characters without delving into inner emotions and motivations, or specifying any kind of obvious moral judgement.

Notes and references

{{Authority control Polish short story collections Holocaust literature 1946 short story collections

Overview

Literary structure of the collection

See also

Notes and references