World War II and the Holocaust
The Holocaust is treated in these stories, and the stories themselves are fictional reflections on real experiences that the author had during his imprisonment in Auschwitz. He is actually not even Jewish, but was trapped their nevertheless and writes about it from many hypothetical points of view, typically with a mean sense of humor and a biting satirical tone. He assesses the absolute absurdity of the tremendous suffering, which is man-made according to his point of view.
Horror and trauma
Don't let his skill for telling jokes deceive you—Borowski's characters are horrified by the unimaginable reality of their situation. Giving that their lives hang in a delicate balance, and that the entire mode of their existence in the concentration camps is intentionally humiliating and horrifying, their daily lives are burdened psychically, and they fight to survive the long-lasting horrors of life in the Holocaust. They are continually dehumanized in these stories, and they fight to survive.
Humor as a response to suffering
What we see from the combination of horror and humor is that for purposes of morale and vigor, having a sense of humor is absolutely vital. There is simply no other response that can ensure any amount of positivity, even if the positivity is just the ironic observation about how absurd and stupid all this unnecessary suffering is. To view human hatred as a stupid mistake is a successful point of view in these stories, or at least, it helps to reduce the horror and pain sometimes.
