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bookgoth's review
nie będę oceniać gwiazdkowo bo tego za żadne skarby nie powinno się oceniać w jakichś głupich gwiazdkach
amittaizero's review against another edition
4.0
What good is reading about the Holocaust when we turn a blind eye to suffering in our own time?
Borowski was not Jewish - he was in Auschwitz because of his Polish nationally - and so his account of the stratification of concentration camp "society" is unique.
He shows the reader soccer, concerts, a brothel for prisoners and guards alike, etc.
The brutality is found not only in the violence but in the mundane, workaday nature of it. A concentration camp or death camp, usually a distinction of time rather than place, was also a functioning workplace and miniature society.
Murder becomes impersonal and routine.
People don't begin committing atrocities on day one - they make small concessions of morality bit by bit, concede to seemingly reasonable or at least not inconvenient requests.
We make deals with our own personal devils until we realize that devils don't make deals, only demands. But who by then is in a position to say no?
Borowski was not Jewish - he was in Auschwitz because of his Polish nationally - and so his account of the stratification of concentration camp "society" is unique.
He shows the reader soccer, concerts, a brothel for prisoners and guards alike, etc.
The brutality is found not only in the violence but in the mundane, workaday nature of it. A concentration camp or death camp, usually a distinction of time rather than place, was also a functioning workplace and miniature society.
Murder becomes impersonal and routine.
People don't begin committing atrocities on day one - they make small concessions of morality bit by bit, concede to seemingly reasonable or at least not inconvenient requests.
We make deals with our own personal devils until we realize that devils don't make deals, only demands. But who by then is in a position to say no?
vasha's review against another edition
5.0
These stories chronicles of the way that concentration camp prisoners grasp at any wisp of power over one another, the power of possession of a slice of bread, of being placed as foreman of a work gang, and struggle to best one another (but constantly reminded that their very existence is threatened by the real people of power, the S.S.) I was scandalized at myself during the reading of "A Day at Harmenz" to find myself taking sides in this; how could I feel Schadenfreude at the "Kapo" getting beaten by the soldiers, even though he beats the other prisoners? They're all victims, the narrator is no saint, how is it possible to take sides. That sure messes with the woman in "The People Who Walked On" who wanted evil to be punished "in human, normal terms" -- the narrator expressed doubts about that possibility. That woman is about the "nicest" person in the book. The author seems to have some idea that women are often better than men.
Then there are the afterward stories, the last three in the book, the author slowly trying to come to terms with his experiences. Seems to me the book needs to be digested slowly by the reader too.
Then there are the afterward stories, the last three in the book, the author slowly trying to come to terms with his experiences. Seems to me the book needs to be digested slowly by the reader too.
shirishmus's review against another edition
Wanneer ik nu de trein uitstap en opga in de mensenmassa, denk ik aan de mensen die naar de gaskamers liepen en huiver een beetje. Misschien dat dit mijn gevoel bij het boek 'This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen' samenvat. Ik ben blij dat ik het boek uit heb, leuk was het niet - en als ik dat wel had gevonden zou ik aan mezelf gaan twijfelen, meer dan nu al. Toch ben ik blij het boek gelezen te hebben en iets meer over o.a. Auschwitz te weten ben gekomen, in ieder geval vanuit het perspectief van Tadeusz Borowski en zijn mede gevangenen. Knap vind ik hoe hij het voor elkaar krijgt de gebeurtenissen zo normaal te laten lijken, een paar honderdduizenden doden hier en daar, geeft niks. Toch geeft het wat, en dat wordt ook wel duidelijk in het boek, juist door hoe hij erover schrijft. Heftig en intens.
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