Summary

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen paints a dramatic picture of the way the Jews coming into Auschwitz were treated. The narrator is a member of the Kommando, a group of labor prisoners who are used to unload the incoming prisoners, strip them of their belongings, and clean out the cattle cars used to transport them to the camp. As the men eat, they talk about the way they haven’t had many transports recently. They wonder briefly if all the people have been killed when they are called to report to the ramp.

Three transports, totaling 15,000 people, are brought into the camp during the course of that day and night. The Jews are packed into trains for transport. They arrive begging for water and air. They are unloaded from the trains and instructed to...