Marianna S. (Angeloudi) reviewed on + 160 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
The somewhat macabre title is a good intro to this book of short stories by Tadeusz Borowski, a Polish "Aryan" (i.e. non-Jewish) prisoner in Auschwitz and Birkenau. By the time he arrived in camp, they were no longer routinely executing "Aryan" prisoners, but only Jews. His matter-of-fact descriptions- of the most mundane occurences, as well as the most horrific, leaves the reader with a sense of unreality. How can this man, who survived and witnessed the most horrendous examples of cruelty, torture, mass executions, and inhumanity, write these stories which include examples of wry humorous observations of the prisoner's foibles and hopes for the future?
This is not an easy read- the subject matter is truly barbaric- but it is very worth reading. Borowski, a concentration camp victim himself, understood what human beings will do to endure the unendurable. These stories, considered a masterpiece of Polish Literature, stand as cruel testimony to the level of inhumanity of which man is capable.
Unfortunately, Borowski ended his own life by his own hand in 1951, 6 years after surviving his three years of slave labor in the camps.
This is not an easy read- the subject matter is truly barbaric- but it is very worth reading. Borowski, a concentration camp victim himself, understood what human beings will do to endure the unendurable. These stories, considered a masterpiece of Polish Literature, stand as cruel testimony to the level of inhumanity of which man is capable.
Unfortunately, Borowski ended his own life by his own hand in 1951, 6 years after surviving his three years of slave labor in the camps.
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