Accessories

Vivid Portrayal of Horror
Primo Levi was an Italian Jew arrested for anti-Fascist resistance in 1944 and sent to the camps of Auschwitz. His short, vivid portrayal of the horrors of the Nazi camps there, the depravity of human nature and the extremes that the human psyche can endure, makes for a lasting literary contribution. Not sermonizing about theology or lecturing about good and evil, this bare-bones account nonetheless has dramatic questions for those interested in human nature, the holocaust, and evil. Very fleetingly does he comment on religion (the problem of theodicy is never made as clear as in Elie Wiesel's Night), but he certainly has captured some of the horrible drama of the Nazi death camps.

"...man is bound to pursue his own ends by all possible means, while he who errs but once pays dearly."
Primo Levy, a twenty-four-year-old Italian Jew captured "on 13 December 1943" and imprisoned for ten months, provides a chilling, though often poetic, account of his so called life in a concentration camp, while hitting home the frustration and futility of his situation. The best way to describe his story and style is through his own words: (p 15) as they prepared the night before they were to be deported "Everyone felt this: not one of the guards, neither Italian or German, had the courage to come and see what men do when they know they have to die," of the next morning (p 16) "Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as through the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction," after the "six hundred and fifty `pieces'" were loaded "Here we received the first blows; and it was so new and senseless that we felt no pain, neither in body nor in spirit. Only a profound amazement: how can one hit a man without anger?" He is first taken to a camp of 10,000 called Buna, where prisoners work at producing rubber. After being thrown together naked with the others, showered, shaved, disinfected and relieved of all possessions, (p 26) he writes "Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man." About the time they have been settled in to the camp, they learn that they will soon be sent out for their first day of work. A French-speaking prisoner replies to their questions with (p 29) "...you are not at home, this is not a sanatorium, the only exit is by way of the Chimney." They are scheduled to work all but every other Sunday (during which they must work "on upkeep of the Lager") (p 36) "Such will be our life. Every day, according to the established rhythm...go out and come in; work, sleep and eat; fall ill, get better or die." The reader later learns (p 73) "...the Buna factory, on which the Germans were busy for four years and for which countless of us suffered and died, never produced a pound of synthetic rubber."

He writes about the typical prisoner (p 90) "They crowd my memory with their faceless presences, and if I could enclose all the evil of our time in one image, I would choose this image which is familiar to me: an emaciated man, with head drooped and shoulders curved, on whose face and in whose eyes not a trace of a thought could be seen." Fortunately, Mr. Levy qualifies to work in a chemical laboratory, which results in an improvement in his living conditions. Yet the usual worries remained, especially (p 126) the "selections" (those chosen to be exterminated) "the percentage was seven percent of the whole camp." He writes as 1944 comes to a close, after almost a year in captivity (p 143-144) about his thoughts on life only twelve months before, "...the future stood before me as a great treasure. Today the only thing left of the life of those days is what one needs to suffer hunger and cold: I am not even alive enough to know how to kill myself." Eventually, the camp is evacuated. Mr. Levy lives on to provide a wealth of wonderful writing to the world, then dies in 1987 at the age of sixty-seven, falling three storeys from a building to his death (either accidentally or intentionally). Also good, Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Night by Elle Wiesel.

Direct and Powerful
Mr. Levi's ability to recount his experience with such emotional clarity allowed me to take in a piece of this dark chapter in European history that I might not have been able to otherwise, given the immensity of the horror. I look forward to reading the other two books he wrote on Auschwitz. Highly recommended.

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!
We had to read this book for a World History class I took in college. I was taking 5 classes at the time, so you can imagine how much reading I had to do on a daily basis. I read this book in ONE sitting (very unusual for me). I could not put it down! I laughed. I cried. I read it again! I recommend this book to EVERYONE!

The Experiences and Reflections of an Italian Jew at Auschwitz
My review of this classic emphasizes matters not raised by previous reviewers, and is based upon the 1986 edition which combines SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ, THE REAWAKENING, and AFTERWORD...

Levi wasn't sent to or near the gas chambers and crematoria. Instead, he was diverted into forced labor in the sub-camp of Monowitz (p. 386), some 7 km east of Auschwitz proper. Poles had to wear a large "P". German political prisoners got various privileges, such as food and clothes from home, and exemption from the dreaded "selections". (p. 183) He saw the bombed-out ruins of the Buna synthetic rubber plant. (p. 137) He predicted that, in the winter of 1944-1945, 7/10ths of the prisoners like him will die. (p. 123)

The reader may not realize that western European Jews commonly looked down upon eastern European Jews as "backward". These feelings were fully reciprocated. Levi comments: "The Germans call them [the Italian Jews] `zwei linke Hande' (two left hands) and even the Polish Jews despise them as they do not speak Yiddish." (p. 49) After his release from Auschwitz, Levi ran across Polish Jews who couldn't believe that Levi was even possibly Jewish because he didn't speak Yiddish. (p. 279)

Unlike most Auschwitz survivors, who traveled west, he traveled east and then south (for map, see pages 178-179). He saw for himself the victimization of the Poles: "In Katowice, and in all Poland, there was a shortage of men; the male population of working age had disappeared, prisoners in Germany and Russia, dispersed among partisan bands, massacred in battle, in the bombardments, in the reprisals, in the Lagers, in the ghettos. Poland was a country in mourning, a country of old men and widows." (p. 239)

In the AFTERWORD, Levi said that, whereas the Nazi concentration camps had 90-98% mortality, the figure for Soviet concentration camps was 30% maximum (p. 389). This is incorrect. Slaves toiling in the gold mines in the Soviet Far East faced close to 100% mortality. And, of course, particular groups targeted for annihilation experienced 100% mortality, be they Jews sent to the gas chambers by the Nazis, or the Polish officers and intellectuals sent to the killing forests near Katyn by the Communists.