Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber: Defense Mechanisms - Essay Example

His depiction of a day at the camp is filled with so much gruesome detail that, at first reading, it is difficult to understand how the guards and camp attendants could participate in such atrocities. On further reflection, it becomes clear that the people trapped in this monstrous scenario arm themselves against the horror of their predicament by adopting psychological defense mechanisms. They are themselves victims of horrendous circumstances, and are definitely ‘good people’ – it is the necessity of survival which compels them to adopt this defensive behavior.

The characters in the story deaden their responses to the horror or their situation through defense mechanisms such as denial, compartmentalization and displacement. Denial, as a defense mechanism, runs throughout Borowski’s narrative. The camp attendants refuse to accept the emotional and moral implications of their forced collaboration with the guards in unloading the inmates from the trains. They suppress their feelings and deny their moral responsibility. The most effective tactic of denial here is the refusal to accept the humanity of the victims.

The attendants dehumanize the victims by subjecting them to a thought process in which they are no longer kindred Jews, but only a source of food and clothing which are necessary for survival. Henri, the Frenchman who is willing to share his food with the narrator, and looks out for his welfare, “dreams aloud of the French wine brought by the transports from Strasbourg”(Borowski, 6). The death trains are not defined in terms of the people they transport to the gas chambers, but as transports of goods “which afterwards we shall simply call "from Salonica," "fromStrasbourg," "from Rotterdam.

"(Borowski, 11). The people are denied their human qualities and given a mechanized connotation which equates them with other goods: “Trucks drive around, load up lumber, cement, people—a regular daily routine” (Borowski, 8). A factory –like ambience is created to strengthen this denial of humanity: “Trucks leave and return, without interruption, as on a monstrous conveyor belt” (Borowski, 11). The dead children are carried out “like chickens” (Borowski, 8). The attendants refuse to make a human connection with the passengers on the trains, and avoid communication by lying, "I don't know, I don't understand Polish" (Borowski, 10).

In this way, the attendants refuse to accept the reality of their cooperation in the genocide. The attendants dissociate themselves from their role in the concentration camp by using the defense mechanism of compartmentalizing the unloading of the death trains from the other aspects of their lives. The time on the ramps is separated from the time in the camp. Each has a separate set of values. Life in the camp is marked by comradeship among small groups. Within the group, there is sharing of food and clothing and support for each other: “They have enough, I have enough, we eat together and we sleep on the same bunks” (Borowski, 7).

The time spent on the ramp unloading the prisoners bound for the gas chambers is clearly demarcated from camp life. Here, there is no decency shown. The victims are treated with contempt and brutality. It is clear that the attendants set aside their humanity when they are a part of “Canada.” Here, a different set of rules is followed. Although the narrator is aware that camp life will also ultimately lead to the gas chamber, he compartmentalizes the two places and