''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. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

Tadeusz Borowski Tadeusz Borowski (; 12 November 1922 – 3 July 1951) was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature. Early life Boro ...

, which were inspired by the author's

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

experience. The original title in the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

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 that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

Following two year imprisonment at

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

, Borowski had been liberated from the

Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

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 Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

's series "Writers from the Other Europe" from the 1970s.

Overview

Borowski was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

in 1942. He was not a part of the

Polish resistance movement in World War II In Poland, the Resistance during World War II, resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front ...

against the Nazis in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, 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

death camp for two years. He was sent on a

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

to the

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 A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...

,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

'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 philosophical ...

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

Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jewish writer, fine artist, Literary criticism, literary critic and Art education, art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish (language), Po ...

, Jiří Weil, and

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera ( ; ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship ...

, 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 of individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well as the inanimate p ...

" 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