The Attitude of the Poles and the Ukranians
The Poles and the Ukrainians are in a strange ethnic no-man's land at the camp. Whilst they are useful, they are used by the Nazi guards to keep the prisoners in order. They look down on the Jews and flaunt their superiority, waiting for the day when they are exterminated. The irony of this situation is that the closer the day comes when that extermination is completed, the more nervous the Poles and the Ukrainians become, because they know that the Nazis like killing and will not stop at Jews. The Poles and Ukrainians become more and more nervous because they know they will be next.
Silence Irony
Karl's mother believes she had no part in the atrocities committed in the war because she was not a Nazi, or a supporter of the Nazis, but Simon points out the irony in this false assumption. Her silence was complicity; without the silence of the people, the Nazi machine could not have accomplished its murder, and so rather than being completely free of guilt, she was actually part of the reason the atrocities continued.
The Welcome Nature of Work Outside
The work that the prisoners were forced to do was back breaking and extremely hard, but when they were put on work detail outside the camp, the prisoners felt genuinely privileged, because the conditions were so much better than those they had been dealing with. They received more food, so that they had the energy to work, the job was genuine, instead of created for the purpose of driving them to death from exhaustion, and they did not have to go back to the prison camp during the night. The fact that working under these circumstances was something the prisoners hoped for is both tragedy and irony.
Technical College
When Simon was studying at the technical college he encountered massive anti-Semitism, and in particular remembers a No Jews Day that students organized, where everyone was forced to go through a gate for examination of their papers and their ethnic appearance. This is ironic because when he goes to the technical college as a prisoner he again encounters enormous anti-Semitism both from the patients in general and from Karl in particular.
Loss of Familiarity
Simon spent several years studying at the technical college but feels like a stranger when he returns there. Nothing looks familiar. He cannot remember whether he has ever been in the courtyard or not. Something that was an integral part of his life for a significant period of time is now completely unfamiliar to him, in the same way that his own life is now unrecognizable as well. The irony in this situation is that there should be some element of reassurance for Simon in being once again in a place that should be familiar, but he does not feel that sense of familiarity at all and feels more lost than ever.
