This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

Tadek is thrilled that he has been chosen as one of ten Birkenau inmates to be trained as a doctor in the Auschwitz hospital to treat his fellow prisoners and “lower the camp’s mortality rate” (98). After Tadek is assigned to a new living space within the hospital, he looks for someone to send a letter for him to his girlfriend. However, in Auschwitz, there is a hierarchy based on who has been there the longest and whose serial numbers are the lowest, so Tadek has no clout because his number is over 1 million.

Tadek believes that Auschwitz is nicer than Birkenau, claiming that the inmates there are proud to call the camp their home. Tadek describes the horrors of the camp as if they are idealistic, complimenting the sculpture that reminds inmates that they are always being watched and monitored, the sturdy guard towers, and the solid fence. He remarks offhand about the holding cells for girls who are used as “experimental guinea pigs” (102). Tadek tells his girlfriend that he has a hard time remembering her face or imagining her in a camp with her head shaved, but that he pretends that these letters are like the conversations they used to have, which is why the