The camp figure of the Muslim was a transient condition, not a fixed fate

Evidence

Indeed, the Muslim can still and always turn or “convert.” The Muslim can turn ghost, Jew, but most importantly, the Muslim can turn back: “In Auschwitz one man knows all there is to know about another: when he was a Muslim, how much he stole” (Borowski, “Auschwitz, Our Home [A Letter],” in This way for the Gas, ro2, emphasis added). … This inscription of the past tense resonates with the “lch war ein Muselmann” registered by Ryn and Klodzinski and, most strikingly, by Agamben, though one should note that one survivor- Edward Sok61-strikingly writes in the present tense: “lch bin ein Muselmann,” Ryn and Klodzinski, “Ander Grenze,” 122. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1210

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the deeper genealogical claim of the book: that ‘Muslim’ naming in Auschwitz repeats an older Arab-Jew entanglement, not mere camp slang.