When Tadeusz Borowski was arrested in 1943 and sent to Auschwitz, he was still a young and talented poet trying to make a name for himself in the literary world. The narratives in The Petrified World center on the author's experience of genocide in Auschwitz and Dachau. It is a world where the struggle for survival overrides compassion. On the one hand, prisoners going about their daily lives, and on the other, their brothers and sisters being slaughtered right next to them. It is a horrifying atmosphere where the distinction between people is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket or a pair of thick-soled shoes, where the fine line between normal and abnormal disappears. Published in Poland after World War II, The Petrified World is undoubtedly one of the most important masterpieces of world literature.