This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

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This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

Tadeusz Barowski details the events of a day at a German concentration camp in his story, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”. The men and women live in separate areas but they can see each other. They struggle for survival, as they lack the basic needs. They depend on the food which their relatives have managed to sneak to them or which they get from the ‘transport’, or the incoming prisoners. They do not have enough clothes or beddings. They have to live in humility and in undignified conditions. The narrator details how the naked men have to live and sleep together in unsanitary conditions. There is no place for former ranks and positions among the prisoners.

The horrors at the concentration camps are unfathomable. The conditions at the unloading ramps arehard to imagine. The narrator and other prisoners know that they can get some essentials and luxuries when they go to the loading ramp. The chance to get items such as shoes, clothing, and some good foods and drinks is appealing to them. They are not aware of the horror that is yet to face them. They have to watch as the new prisoners come in and as they are directed to their fate. The old, young, and disabled are taken to gas chambers together with the infants and adults who have already died in the trains. The rest have to slave at the concentration camps before facing their death.

The accounts detailed in the story enable the readers to know the horrors that the people went through at the camps. At the same time, they show how people were able to get used to the conditions and how they managed to survive in the midst of the horror. Those who survive the camps have already learnt the ways of surviving. They know how to encourage the new prisoners, even though they use lies and deception in the process. Some of them have lost any sense of empathy. The concentration camps remove the humanity from people. Some like Henri seem to have lost any sense of sympathy. Those who have heard about the concentration camps know what to expect. The camps are a way of knowing the real nature of people. They are places where women do not think twice about abandoning their children if this will increase their chances of survival

Although men and women of whatever ranks have to face the same situations at the camps, it is clear that they have managed to find divisions and ways of distinguishing themselves. The narrator mentions different groups such as the Greeks, Jews, Poles, French, and Russians. Most of the Greeks have starved to death at the camp. Some groups seem more privileged than others are, since they can afford to get some food. The Canada men are more concerned with getting something to eat and they have been designated the role of carrying food for the camp.  

The story is in first person narration. The narrator does not know what will happen next and neither can he make any predictions. He can only relate the events as they happen. He is not in a position to control anything. The story does not end in any pleasant or satisfying way. The prisoners live each day as it comes. They learn to appreciate the little fortunes of the day. The narrator realizes that the conditions at the camp are much better than unloading the ramps. He begins seeing the camp as a place of refuge. Even though the prisoners may hope for a better future, they know that it might never happen.