We Were In Auschwitz
Janusz Nel, Krystyn Olszewski, And Tadeusz Borowski
Summary
1) Authors' purpose
2) Concepts/Principles
Value: When an Individual is left in a life or death situation, everything from food to simple entertainment becomes 10x more valuable than before. When their lives are normal, materials are dispensable, when they are in captivity on the brink of death, nothing goes to waste.
Identity: When you strip anything of it's identity, And detach your emotions from it, it then becomes a mere object. This is exactly what the SS did to the Jews which is a big part in how they were capable of mindlessly exterminating hundreds of thousands of Jews.
3) chapter of impact
This chapter is about how the SS men would handle the shipments of Jews that came into the camp. Right of the bat, they were treated like cattle, stripped of all of their belongs and identities and filed out based on health and gender. most would be put onto trucks and brought directly to the gas chambers. But the main reason this chapter struck me, is because one of the SS man that was unloading passengers finally came to his senses and saw the horror of his ways. He ended up walking off because he was sick to death of what he has done. He came to this realization when he saw one of the SS shot a baby in the head for no reason to show the other passengers that they meant business.
4) Book Rating
5) Passages
"Oh, we'll manage, is a camp for people, or what?" This passage was from the last chapter when Janusz and the others thought the war was over, so they would be free'd. But then realized they were only being transferred to another camp. But what struck me was the fact that they were not really upset (because their minds are so damaged), they were just hoping for a new change in scenery. They were in a sense desensitized to the labor and punishments.
"Listen Henry, are we good people?" This happened in the chapter where The SS when were unloading passengers to be sorted, cleaned of all material wealth and shipped off to either the camp or the gas. The SS man asked his friend Henry if they were good people, because he had started to see the errors in his ways. Henry felt they were doing right, but the SS man (unknown) started to get violently ill and left the scene saying "I don't want any part in this anymore." So this gave me a sense of hope, showing that people, no matter how bad the situation, can see the errors in their ways, and change for the better.