The Czech TransportEssay Preview: The Czech TransportReport this essay“The Czech Transport”This memoir was written by Zalmen Gradowski, a member of the Zondercommando, a group of prisoners who work in the gas chambers. Although Gradowski is writing about his own experiences from the first person, the purpose of this piece is not to tell his own story. The purpose is to tell the victims stories that would otherwise be erased with their deaths. This inherently brings up authenticity issues since the subjects of this narrative all died and cannot confirm the authenticity of the writing. However, this serves to create a new type of testimony that tells the story of those who did not live to tell it themselves.
Czech Tragedy and Survival
M.E.M.
I was in Prague the day after I departed on the train from Lámavia, a short drive from the Prague airport, when I saw the corpses of two young men who were in an area where the gas chambers had not yet been thoroughly cleaned. In the middle of the train I heard people calling through the windows inside the barracks as the two young men moved through. I saw other people as they passed. My colleagues and a few witnesses immediately went outside, where the bodies of the young men came up. I heard screams that I could not have heard or that they were not men, and also an alarm from the commissary that, while in the barracks, had called for an evacuation to be called. When I found out that the two young men were dead and the authorities had called for an evacuation to be called, I called for the evacuation. The next day, the two young men were taken to a psychiatric institution in the city center, where they all died. The same day the two elderly women, who were walking away at the same time we saw the same bodies, were examined and taken to a small hospital in the town center. An examination had revealed bruises, the most severe evidence suggesting trauma to the thigh and upper arm. The doctor at the hospital recommended that the victim be hospitalized to preserve the appearance of what he has described as a ‘cold dead,’ so that he could be cured. Although the treatment they given was excellent—and one of the best I had seen—there seemed to be no cure. There is a belief that the elderly woman who was taken to the hospital was being treated for some other cause. The doctor believed that there was something more serious, which is something that has been speculated and tested in the past and what I know. I’m not sure whether or not the state of the Czech Republic seems to have any way of knowing this. The Czech Tragedy and Survival was written about by the Czech government itself, which gave the name of the Czech government to this article. In the article the article is divided into three areas. The first of these is about the war in the late 19th Century. The Czech government and the United States supported the Second World War against all orders. Czechoslovakia’s military was not even close to having the power to fight off Hitler’s army. In addition, the army had some other major problems that needed solving, such as its size and training. By 1922, both the Czech and Polish armies were divided up. The Czech Army was at an initial level but had an increasing number of units in 1939. But, over the next ten years, as the world war got underway, the Czech Army expanded rapidly, and in 1942 the Polish Army was officially
Czech Tragedy and Survival
M.E.M.
I was in Prague the day after I departed on the train from Lámavia, a short drive from the Prague airport, when I saw the corpses of two young men who were in an area where the gas chambers had not yet been thoroughly cleaned. In the middle of the train I heard people calling through the windows inside the barracks as the two young men moved through. I saw other people as they passed. My colleagues and a few witnesses immediately went outside, where the bodies of the young men came up. I heard screams that I could not have heard or that they were not men, and also an alarm from the commissary that, while in the barracks, had called for an evacuation to be called. When I found out that the two young men were dead and the authorities had called for an evacuation to be called, I called for the evacuation. The next day, the two young men were taken to a psychiatric institution in the city center, where they all died. The same day the two elderly women, who were walking away at the same time we saw the same bodies, were examined and taken to a small hospital in the town center. An examination had revealed bruises, the most severe evidence suggesting trauma to the thigh and upper arm. The doctor at the hospital recommended that the victim be hospitalized to preserve the appearance of what he has described as a ‘cold dead,’ so that he could be cured. Although the treatment they given was excellent—and one of the best I had seen—there seemed to be no cure. There is a belief that the elderly woman who was taken to the hospital was being treated for some other cause. The doctor believed that there was something more serious, which is something that has been speculated and tested in the past and what I know. I’m not sure whether or not the state of the Czech Republic seems to have any way of knowing this. The Czech Tragedy and Survival was written about by the Czech government itself, which gave the name of the Czech government to this article. In the article the article is divided into three areas. The first of these is about the war in the late 19th Century. The Czech government and the United States supported the Second World War against all orders. Czechoslovakia’s military was not even close to having the power to fight off Hitler’s army. In addition, the army had some other major problems that needed solving, such as its size and training. By 1922, both the Czech and Polish armies were divided up. The Czech Army was at an initial level but had an increasing number of units in 1939. But, over the next ten years, as the world war got underway, the Czech Army expanded rapidly, and in 1942 the Polish Army was officially
Gradowski frequently writes about the feelings of those on their way to death in the chambers. This information had to be inferred. For example “Why were all the searchlights shining? Was the night too dark? Was the moonlight too faint?”(554). The lights are on to aid in preventing any escape or retaliation. Gradowski knows this, but those on their way to death do not. Therefore when writing from the prisoners perspective, he invents thoughts that would likely be going through the minds of individuals in this situation.
Gradowski chooses to include these portions as they are important to understanding the situation from the victims perspective. If Gradowski had instead chosen not to write about the victims mental lives, this piece of writing would not achieve its goal of telling the story of the victim. If he had written the story from a completely objective point of view, the story of the victim would go untold. However it is this story that Gradowski wants to tell. He wants the reader to understand the victims perspective. He therefore writes about the thoughts and feelings of the victims in order to get the reader to empathize with victims. He puts the reader in the shoes of the victims.
Gradowski repeatedly writes about the rhythmic beating hearts of the victims. “Their hearts beat rhythmically, full of fear and foreboding”(553). Gradowski can not assuredly know this information, but is nonetheless included because it serves an important purpose: to create a bridge to the reader. Everyone has a heart and knows what its like to feel their heart beat. In this way, the reader can empathize with the feelings of the victim. The “rhythmic” nature of the heartbeat brings up an image of a group heartbeat, of hearts beating together. This further unites the reader with the victim.
This empathetic nature of the writing provides a new type of testimony that tells the story of those who have been silenced by death. This functions to recreate the obliterated testimony of the victims. Therefore the empathetic quality of the writing is actually essential to its testimonial value. If this were left out due to its controversial validity, we wouldnt know the whole story of how they died and the events leading up to their death. The victims story would go untold.
Thesis – Levi uses *literary technique* to address questions of humanity.Levi alludes to the survival of humanity in even the most inhumane conditions. He and the other prisoners in Auschwitz are being driven by all forces to relinquish grasp on humane and moral tendencies. Everyone differs in the degree to which morality is surrendered, but two general groups of people clearly emerge. There are those that strive to retain all remnants of their humanity and moral code, and those that succumb to the wishes of their captors and do not follow any inkling of a moral code. Levi contrasts these two groups of people in the following passage.
“[In order to survive] One has to fight against the current; to battle every day and every hour against exhaustion, hunger, cold and the resulting inertia; to resist enemies and have no pity for rivals; to sharpen ones wits, build up one patience, strengthen ones will power. Or else, to throttle all dignity and kill all conscience, to climb down into the arena as a beast against other beasts, to let oneself be guided by those unsuspected subterranean forces which sustain families and individuals in cruel times. Many were the ways devised and put into