There is broad critical agreement that Tadeusz Borowski's stories are among the best that have been written by any writer, in any language, about the German concentration camp at Auschwitz. Borowski explored what Primo Levi called "the grey area" of relative accommodation in the camps. He described this phenomenon directly and with great honesty; it is difficult to overestimate the significance and value of Borowski's writings. Yet, critical assessment is complicated. His writings are varied and often contradictory. The composition of his best writings occurred in a short span of time--approximately four years. The evolution and radical changes in his attitudes often took place rapidly, in months and not years as with most other writers. The difficulties in interpreting Borowski's writings are not only biographical but also textual. Borowski's biographer and editor, Tadeusz Drewnowski, has admitted that the Polish texts of the stories and poems are difficult to...