This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

Blurb

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, also known as Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, is a collection of short stories by Tadeusz Borowski, which were inspired by the author's concentration camp experience. The original title in the Polish language was Pożegnanie z Marią. The book was featured in Penguin's series "Writers from the Other Europe" from the 1970s. Philip Roth was the general editor, and the series included authors such as Danilo Kiš, Bruno Schulz, Jiří Weil, and Milan Kundera among others.
Borowski was not part of the resistance against the Nazis during World War II in Warsaw, but his girlfriend at the time took part in it. She was captured, and because he was so much in love with her, he went to a known resistance meeting place in order to get arrested in an attempt to go to the same concentration camp as she. He was incarcerated at the notorious Auschwitz death camp. In searing, satiric prose Borowski details what life and death was like in the German concentration camps.
The short stories are linked by the themes as well as the presence of the main character Tadek, who serves the role of the narrator as well as the central character.