Reddit reviews This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Penguin Modern Classics)

There's actually a reeeeeaaaallllly good book called "This Way For The Gas, Ladies And Gentlemen" by Tadeusz Borowski where he writes about his experiences in the camps. He was not Jewish, he was a Pole. It's truly fascinating to see the differences in his experience versus what so many Jews experienced especially if you were to read it back-to-back with something like Wiesel's "Night".

Some required reading, cumskin.

Nice report!

I can add a little bit to two comments:

>I also asked the guide about human remains, teeth, burial sites and he said the Germans were very through at disposal, so very little has been found. My thought on this: teeth are hard to burn, do the math on 900,000 folks.

That's a good observation. If we look at the Herb Baumeister case http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/baumeister/bodies_8.html ..

>Meanwhile, the excavations in the back yard went on without pause. The number of diggers had swelled to about 60 volunteers, mostly off-duty policemen and firemen. The first couple days search had produced an amazing 5,500 bones, teeth and bone fragments, which, according to Nawrocki, made up about four bodies.

So, 900,000 bodies should at least leave some traces. To the people who countered with "they ground the bones into a fine dust and the dust blew away". Where are they getting this? Which witness says this about Auschwitz? Answer: None. They are making this up on the spot.

2)

>The chambers themselves are now mostly rubble, but were located in plain view next to a soccer field and barracks.

From the introduction to this book:

http://www.amazon.com/This-Ladies-Gentlemen-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140186247


book review: This book has the truth on its side, and it shows. Nothing is dramatized or sentimentalized. These tales do not even have an undercurrent of rage. With a matter-of-fact style that says more than a diatribe, these horrific - utterly horrific - accounts of life in a death camp imprint themselves on your psyche and refuse to go away. But, that is a good thing.

>http://imgur.com/d0zHr4f

He claims to have played soccer in the soccer field as 3k people were killed right behind him. According to him, everyone knew of the killing but life went on.

This is a huge departure from the story that they were tricking Jews into going into the gas chamber. According to him, the Jews just went in willingly knowing their fate!

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - it's a collection of short stories describing life in concentration camp, by author who actually survived one. I am polish, and during high school we have to read quite a few books regarding various aspects of WWII, but it was the only one that I had to put away for a while after reading just a few pages ( if you'll read the story depicting arrival of new inmates, you will understand).