Summary
Survival in Auschwitz, written in the first and second-person perspectives, describes conditions in the Nazi concentration camps during the 1940s based on the author's personal experience. In the preface to the book, Levi states that it was his "good fortune" to be sent to Auschwitz in 1944—by this time, the Nazis had decided to lengthen the average lifespan of prisoners in order to better utilize their labor. Levi goes on to say that his intention in providing these firsthand experiences of being in a concentration camp was to enable the reader to study certain aspects of the human mind. The book is not organized chronologically, but rather according to urgency. Survival in Auschwitz is Levi's path toward internal liberation, as well as a way for him to make the rest of the world participate in this story.
After the preface, Levi includes a poem that addresses those who have the privilege of safe and sheltered lives. He implores these people to learn about the plights of men and women who have been abused, diminished, and dehumanized in the Nazi death camps. Levi tells the privileged not to ignore atrocities. in the final movement of the poem, Levi wishes destitution, illness, and estrangement upon anyone who chooses to ignore dehumanization.
In the first chapter (titled "The Journey"), Levi recounts being captured by the Fascist militia in December of 1943. Due to his status as an "Italian citizen of Jewish race," Levi is sent to a detention camp in Fossoli. When German soldiers announce that all the Jews were to leave the camp and head to an unspecified destination, only a small minority continued to hope for survival. The vast majority prepare themselves in different ways for death: some pray, others get drunk, and mothers continue to care lovingly for their children. After the collective expressions of grief and lamentation made during the night, dawn arrives, and with it, the time for departure.
During the bus and train rides, German officers dehumanize the Jews, and Levi recounts feeling hopeful, uncertain, despairing, and uncomfortable throughout this journey. Everyone on the train learns that they are headed for Auschwitz. This knowledge brings relief because the name holds no significance for them except the implication of an earthly destination. Suffering from hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and nervous tension, the riders have no idea what awaits them. When they arrive at their destination, German officers casually organize the Italian Jews into different lines according to age and gender, and the men are transported to a camp known as Buna. Levi does not know what happens to the women and children. Upon arrival, the men are ordered to undress; they are shaved, disinfected, stripped of their possessions, and tattooed with an identification number. Soon, Levi and the others learn the complicated and strict rules of life in the camp. These rules include understanding every order (no matter the language it was spoken in) and working to maintain their hygiene (or else they will face illness and punishment). Levi loses his will to survive, but his friend Steinlauf reminds him that survival means sharing this story in order to preserve the hope for a future humane society.
Analysis
In Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi provides his true firsthand account of surviving a Nazi death camp, and draws implications about what these experiences mean for humanity as a whole. In February of 1944, Levi and other inmates were deported to Auschwitz, a notorious concentration camp complex in Poland. Levi calls it his "good fortune" to have been sent to the camps only in 1944, partly attributing his survival to this fact. Though Levi is sincere in making this statement (he was lucky to have been sent to the camps after the German government decided to extend the average lifespan of prisoners), referring to the experience of being in a concentration camp as "good fortune" is nonetheless an example of verbal irony.
As a writer, Levi makes it clear from the beginning that he is aware of rhetoric. He addresses the reader and asks for "indulgence" concerning "the structural defects of the book." This humility appeals to the reader's pathos, and helps demonstrate the author's credibility. The chapters are "fragmented" in that they are organized according to urgency rather than chronology. The guiding principle in this book is Levi's own internal liberation: telling his story is a necessary means for him to establish his own humanity and warn society about the egregious possibility of human destruction. Levi engages the reader's participation in the story of the death camps by providing a study of the human mind, and by using the second-person perspective to implicate the reader. Storytelling is thus equated to a basic survival need.
After the brief foreword, Levi includes a poem that directly addresses privileged readers using the second-person perspective. The privilege in question is related to physical, emotional, and psychological safety. If a person can return safely to a warm home with hot food and friendly faces, then this person is privileged. Levi implores these readers to consider the plight of dehumanized men and women. The descriptions of these men and women are indented on the page, setting them apart from the descriptions of the privileged. The abuse described in the poem (including terrible working conditions, starvation, and deprivation) could refer to many historical occurrences, not just the Nazi concentration camps. By keeping the context unspecific, Levi insists upon a human responsibility to know about the terrible things humans are capable of.
The first chapter of the book is called "The Journey," and it recounts Levi's initial capture in Italy and his deportation to an unspecified destination that he believed meant his certain death. Levi describes the different ways that over six hundred Italian Jews came to be at the detention camp in Fossoli. While some were captured, others turned themselves in for a variety of reasons, including "to be in conformity with the law." Levi calls this absurd. As this book was written with the intention to provide instances for human study, Levi's criticism of conforming to unjust laws is significant. This criticism aligns with his characterization of the book as a "sinister alarm-signal" in the preface.
Levi goes on to equate the arrival of the German SS (Schutzstaffel, the elite paramilitary) and the announcement of Jewish deportation with certain death. For every person missing at the roll call the morning of the journey, ten people would be shot. This demonstrates the psychological terror employed by the officers to ensure compliance. The response to this announcement was varied: some people prayed while others got drunk. Levi hones in on the way that mothers continued to provide loving care to their children despite the near certainty of death. He addresses the reader, asking, "Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?" The use of the second person is a reminder of shared humanity; there is no real difference between the reader and those who are targeted, marginalized, and abused.
German officers dehumanize the Jews during the journey to the concentration camp by referring to them as "pieces," beating them, and packing them into the trains like "cheap merchandise." Levi expresses amazement that "one can hit a man without anger," which echoes the way in which many German soldiers after the war stated that they were "just following orders." Levi continues making statements about humanity as a whole in his meditation about the impossibility of both perfect happiness and perfect unhappiness. The human condition prevents a person from entirely feeling one or the other: no one knows exactly what the future brings, and so either hope or uncertainty reigns. Again, Levi's philosophical musings about humanity as a whole involve the reader in the story.
Levi engages the reader's senses using images to describe the conditions on the train. In one image, Levi writes of how someone "would light a candle, and its mournful flicker would reveal an obscure agitation, a human mass, extending across the floor, confused and continuous, sluggish and aching, rising here and there in sudden convulsions and immediately collapsing again in exhaustion." The use of run-on sentences helps convey the suffering taking place. At the station, Levi recounts the casual manner in which the German SS officers organized the passengers into different lines. This casual manner extends to the way the Germans strike a man saying goodbye to his fiancée—Levi refers to this cruelty as the Germans' "everyday duty," which demonstrates the normalization of violence. In this section, Levi writes using the collective "we," which gives voice to the other prisoners in Levi's account.
Levi describes how his people become aware that their language "lacks words" to express "the demolition of a man." Those in charge at Buna (the camp to which they were transported) use deprivation, disorientation, and purposeful miscommunication in their treatment of the Jews. It will take immense strength for Levi and the other Jews to keep their names and identities in such a place. They are reduced to their own suffering, to others' judgment of their usefulness, and to a number tattooed upon their arms. Levi refers to this as a baptism: a grotesque initiation into a new life full of complicated rules, arduous work, and maltreatment.
After a short time, Levi's instinct for survival disappears. In the washroom, Levi's friend Steinlauf reminds him not to lose his humanity and become a beast. Survival will allow Levi and the others to tell the story of what happened in order to preserve the idea—the bare concept—of civilization. Here, Levi insinuates the responsibility of all of humanity in the story of what occurred at Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.
