THIS WAY FOR TADEUSZ BOROWSKI

This was for another brief from Bertram. 'This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen' is from a series of concentration camp journal-inspired stories.

Many stories about the Holocaust showed images of Auschwitz, or shower heads and barb wires, ...etc. It is a challenge for any revamp of book covers these days. Too many imagery have been used and what could inspire the theme in a new way?

Here is a little excerpt from Wiki :

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, also known as Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, is a collection of short stories by Tadeusz Borowski, which were inspired by the author's concentration camp experience. The original title in the Polish language was Pożegnanie z Marią (Farewell to Maria). Borowski was not part of the resistance against the Nazis during World War II in Warsaw but his girlfriend at the time took part in it. She was captured, and because he was so much in love with her, he went to a known resistance meeting place in order to get arrested in an attempt to go to the same concentration camp as her.

He was incarcerated at the notorious Auschwitz death camp. In searing, satiric prose Borowski details what life and death were like in the Nazi concentration camps. The short stories are linked by the themes as well as the presence of the main character Tadek, who serves the role of the narrator as well as the central character. To a large degree the short stories are autobiographical.

Tadek is a condensed version of Tadeusz and there is a high likelihood that Borowski was writing from experience. But the two "characters" themselves are different. Tadek is a survivalist with a hard shell. Borowski, described by others, was a leader and a man who nobly helped others and did not only worry about himself.

It needs a twist in imagery no doubt.

Borowski wrote with a light of positivity even though the situation was grim. Although it was depressing, Borowski always had a glimpse of light at the end of tunnel. I played with the negative of film and portrayed a raven flying by with a bone in comparison to a dove, surrounded by a red hue which surrounded the area when bodies are incinerated. The rest of the image is the recognizable gate of Auschwitz. We see that Borowski could have flipped his reality to give him more hope, or that it could be the negative of hope due to the grimness of Auschwitz. In either way, it is up to the reader to judge.