Beta the Disappointed Lover Summary and Analysis

Beta, another friend of Milosz, was twenty years old in 1942, when they first met. He was a young, aspiring poet, who attended the underground university and supported himself by performing odd jobs. Like others, he had no beliefs in democracy or religion, as he made known in his poems. He used a mimeograph machine to publish his works. His works captured the realism of life in Warsaw at the time. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, he survived Auschwitz and Dachau to be liberated by the Americans.

After the war, he wrote of his experiences in the concentration camps. He explains the social structure that develops in the concentration universe in terms of camp authorities, trusted prisoners, strong prisoners and weak prisoners. Beta belonged to the strong and healthy group, and his publications tells of life...