HOW NATIONALISM LED TO THE DEMISE OF BRITISH AND FRENCH COLONIES IN AFRICA AND ASIA

Consequently, they saw the need to fight for political freedom as well as self determination. The suffering of Africans, expressed in form of armed resistance in many countries, marked the growth of African and Asian nationalism (Hissong, pp. Fighting against nationalism in both Africa and Asia caused enormous economic losses to the British and French colonial powers following the Great depression of 1930. They had to invest in arms and weapons to fight against nationalists and resistance as well as maintain the state of their colonies. Moreover, the colonial powers had many of their officials killed by the nationalists. Borowski was not one of the Jews, but a poet who suffered from depression due to imprisonment. He was imprisoned because his fiancé was a part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II against the Nazis in Warsaw.

Consequently, the Nazis had enough reason to detain him at Auschwitz for two years and Dachau because he was considered a political prisoner. Borowski explains what life and death felt like in the German concentration camps as well as the extremely poor relationships between the prisoners. Borowski is described as a man who didn’t care for himself as much as he did for others, a heart-centered leader. Moreover, they were forced to carry the dead Jews to the crematorium and witness other horrifying and despicable deeds. Tadek, was imprisoned both physically and mentally because he couldn’t make decisions about anything concerning his life, just like a slave. Borowski also gives us an idea on how isolated the concentration camps were, he himself was also isolated.

Throughout the book, Borowski shows how different characters were deceived and given false hopes to their own doom and executions. Tadek would let the Jews, who were deceived in hope for greener pastures, come off the train and never spoke a word concerning their execution in gas chambers. They also feel that the “the only permissible form of charity” (Borowski, pp. 37) is a last hope until they face their own deaths. This tactic was generally used by the Nazis in order to achieve their goals in genocide. The author narrates that because the victims did not meet the standards of the Nazi community, the “Final solution” was to get rid of them, through starvation, being worked to death, and even mass killings.

Borowski describes in his many short stories that some victims during the Holocaust had to choose between their one lives or loved ones. What would the world have gained beyond this book from Mr. Borowski, if he was allowed to live free? As I closed the book and reflected on the morbid events I had just read. But seriously, here’s the rest. Upon reading of the narrators’ brief excerpt of his experience, I was overcome with empathy for both the victims and persecutors. The everlasting effect of the holocaust is not only among those who lost families, friends, 6 millions of the Jewish race but also the prison workers who were tormented by the guilt of their merciless and inhuman actions.