"This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen" is a well written autobiography that consists of short stories and letters that
tell of what life was like inside
concentration camps in German occupied Poland. Borowski survived the concentration camps and avoided the gas
chambers only to kill himself (stuck his head in his oven) in 1951. He was one of Poland's most prolific writers at that time and a member of the communist party.
One of the most striking things about the book is the class differences within the concentration camps. The aryans (any non-jew in the camps) felt as though they were better than the Jews. Borowski writes as though he feels this way, in a nonchalante and confident manner, but there are times when you can see his thought process through the writing. There is some guilt there (surely had something to do with his suicide) and the feeling as though theyare better than those who are being exterminated is just a survival mechanism. They had to justify the reasoning of the murder of so many Jews (they had stopped killing non Jews at this point) or you could get yourself killed trying to save them.
I found that the most intriguing look into Borowski's mind was in the story called "Auschwitz, Our Home (A Letter). You have to imagine what it must be like being a writer, poet, and a dreamer living everyday in a concentration camp. He says how he used to like Plato, but now considers him a liar and a fake. There is also a part where he explains (in a briliant literary way) how during two throw ins of a soccer game (they actually played soccer in the camp) something like 30,000 Jews were gassed.
There are many gruesome and disturbing details throughout the stories. Sons have to send their parent to the chambers, cripples are thrown on trucks filled with dead bodies to be burned alive, and there are instances of cannabilism. But, if you are interested in the physical, sociological, and psychological repurcusions of the holocaust then you will enjoy this collection of stories. Truly world class literature and a quick read.