Death in Overtime

Many people would say that war is Death's best friend. Death would disagree, however, saying that war only brings a slew of back breaking jobs, especially the concentration camps of World War II. " 'I'll never forget the first day in Auschwitz, the first time in Mauthausen. At that second place as time wore on, I also picked them up from the bottom of the great cliff,when their escapes fell awfully awry." (Zusak, 349). The concentration camps were where the majority of the six million Jews who died were killed. The Jews chosen that day were told to strip, thinking they were going for a shower, would file into a dark room. The door would suddenly slam shut behind them, and the gas would come pouring in. Everyone would die, including the women and children. Death describes the sky as the color of Jews because of all the souls floating around, waiting to be taken to the afterlife. He even goes into specifics describing a group of French Jews who were sent to the gas chamber. "On Jun 23, 1942, there was a group of French Jews in a German prison on Polish soil. The first person I took was close to the door, his mind racing, then reduced to pacing, then slowing down, slowing down..."(Zusak, 350). Death goes into the specific details of how they die, describing the man slowly sucumbing to the cynanide gas' deadly embrace (Zusak, 220). Death believed he was doing the Jews a favor, by taking them into his wide embrace, freeing them from their pain and hardships. Dying in the concentration camps was probably preferable to living in the work camps, living under the reality of starvation and torture. Death was actually being kind to them by freeing them in the only way he knew how to.

Works Cited
Zusak,Markus. The Book Thief. New York City, NY Alfred A. Knoph. 2005.Print.