This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

The author and narrator, Tadeusz Borowski—Tadek for short—is incarcerated at the Auschwitz concentration camp, although his name is not identified in the first story. Tadek has just received his newly disinfected prisoner uniform. The prisoners are naked and sleeping without mattresses and blankets. Tadek eats breakfast with Henri, a Frenchman and a fellow prisoner, who is part of the so-called Canada detail, the prisoners who empty out the trains of new prisoners to be sent to the gas chambers, the crematorium, or to work in the camp. Those in the Canada crew have the first access to the food and clothing that the new prisoners brought with them. The day is hot, and Tadek and Henri are eating food sent in a package from Tadek’s family. Tadek asks Henri to find him some new shoes with the next transport.

A messenger enters and summons Henri and the Canada crew because a long-awaited, new train is arriving. Tadek joins them because the crew is shorthanded. One guard mocks a group of Greek prisoners who start to eat some rotten food they find, exclaiming, “For God’s sake, any minute you’ll have so much food to stuff down your guts, you’ll bust!” (34).