A member of the anti-Fascist movement in Mussolini's Italy, Primo Levi describes being arrested and interned in a camp in Northern Italy. In 1944, he is deported along with his fellow prisoners to the now infamous Nazi camp internment camp Auschwitz in Poland. At the time, Auschwitz was not well-known, and initially the fact that they were going somewhere with a name, rather than being transported to a nameless location that meant certain death, gave Levi reason for optimism. Levi describes how the prisoners are crammed into windowless wagons and transported across Europe along specially constructed railway lines that lead directly to the work and death camps. The Nazis targeted Jews, Romani people, homosexuals, and political dissidents, among others.
The prisoners are divided into two groups: the fit, young, and healthy adults and young men are corralled to one side of the train, and the women, elderly, infirm, and young children to the other. The latter group is taken to Belsen, where they are killed in the gas chambers. The former group is taken to Auschwitz, where they are forced to do slave labor. Dehumanization is rampant, and often leads to internal despair. A man in the shower rooms reminds Levi of the importance of having small daily rituals to maintain, in their own eyes at least, a shred of humanity.
The men's heads are shaved, their clothes are taken away, and they are forced to wear wooden shoes that cause pain and sores. Within the camp, overall hygiene is emphasized so as not to spread disease. The food rations consist of a square of gray, unappetizing bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as thin, watery turnip soup. This is not enough to sustain the prisoners, and they have to resort to actions such as stealing and illegal trading in order to survive. The sleeping quarters are cramped, with two men per bed. During the Selections, such as that of October 1944, prisoners are chosen (at times randomly) to be sent to the gas chambers in order to make space for incoming prisoners. During one particular selection, the author believes that his card is confused with the card of the much fitter-looking, younger, and healthier man directly in front of him in the line, who is sent to his death in the gas chamber.
Work is extremely difficult and back-breaking, and the weaker the men became, the harder the work is to accomplish. The Germans had taken great pains to calculate the minimum amount of food and water that could be given to sustain men so that they were fit enough to work. In the camp, there is a trade in "contraband" appropriated from a variety of sources, including the British prisoners of war whose camp was next to Auschwitz, and sympathetic villagers who would bring small food items and slip them through the fence. Levi was the beneficiary of one such act of generosity from an Italian civilian worker named Lorenzo. Amongst the men there was also a trade of food, shoes and other necessities; bread was their currency of choice and expediency, and through this trade, the men were able to survive. However, they did not conduct their lives the same way they had before the Nazis began their atrocities. Levi wonders how many people who live according to the morality of the wider world would survive within the camps.
Levi is selected to be on a chemical team to work in the laboratory. This heightens his chances of survival, as working inside during the winter protects him from laboring outside in the snow. Levi falls ill with scarlet fever and is sent for the second time to the infirmary. Towards the end of 1945, it becomes clear that the Germans are losing the war, and that the allies would be overtaking the camp. The Nazis gather together all of the men considered healthy enough to march to what was believed to be safety. It was widely believed within the camp that only those fit enough to march would survive; to be left behind in the camp would be a death sentence. However, the opposite turned out to be the case. None of those who left on the march were ever seen again. The evacuation march was actually a death march, but Levi does not give any further details. His best friend Alberto is among those who died on this march.
Left to fend for themselves in the camp, Levi and his fellow infirmary residents search for food and supplies at the abandoned Guard accommodations. They transition from the "every man for himself" mindset to a collective effort to ensure the survival of the eleven patients in their infirmary room. Of their group, Levi and two Frenchmen are the primary initiators of this survival effort. When the Allies liberate the camp, they discover the gruesome and decaying scene of the camp. The Russians arrive ten days after the camp had been abandoned by the Germans. Only one of the eleven men in their group died during this time. The remainder were reunited with family after being treated for the extreme illnesses they had contracted whilst imprisoned. Jumping ahead to the future, Levi recounts communicating by letter with his friend Charles, and they express hope to see each other again.
