Władysław Fejkiel (1911–1995) reports that in the winter of 1941/42 Gawalewicz was brought to the camp's infirmary in a state of unconsciousness and so extremely emaciated that his body weight could not have been more than 35 kg; the medic's first thought was to prepare his death certificate.
[2] The text ranks among the preeminent testimonials of such Holocaust survivors as Tadeusz Borowski, Halina Birenbaum, Primo Levi, and Elie Wiesel, who addressed the question of moral choice.
[3] Giorgio Agamben, for his part, chose to highlight Gawalewicz's observation that the abnormal conditions of the camp accounted for the aggravation of the normal physical and psychological differences between men.
"[4] Patricia Treece brings out Gawalewicz's sophisticated analysis of the six distinct ways in which the concentration-camp system served the larger, but not readily apparent, purposes of Nazi Germany.
He wrote — for a former prisoner:Every perspective of the external structure, every stair, every brick or what might otherwise seem an insignificant detail is invested with the memory of the immeasurable immensity of suffering and dignity, of degradation and pride.