[The traumatic experiences of World War II pervade all of Różewicz's writing], directly and indirectly. Of course, he is not the only Polish writer to explore this theme. But his treatment of it has seared itself on the minds of his contemporaries. As one of the most talented writers among them [Anna Kamieńska] has said:

We were all twenty-four then, and we all survived being led to the slaughter, but only Tadeusz Różewicz expressed this experience on behalf of the entire generation so graphically, so brutally, and so simply. His 'I' became the voice of his generation.

The "experience" created a profound problem of faith among Polish writers. It was not the problem of faith in God, which had tormented European intellectuals in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but rather of faith in man and all man's works. (p. 72)

This feeling lies at the...