Summary
The arrival of winter is a source of strife for the prisoners. During the months of October to April, seven out of ten will die, and those living must expend precious energy trying to stay warm. The prisoners are aware that many will be chosen for annihilation (death in the gas chambers) due to overcrowding in the camp. The prisoners comfort each other, telling each other that they won't be chosen. Levi states that he survived the great selection of October 1944 due to chance. His feeling of tranquility during this time comes from a false sense of reassurance that he wouldn't die at this time.
On the day of the selections, everyone is locked into their huts, stripped of clothes, and handed identification cards. They wait quietly until the commission arrives, and then they are all crammed into a small room. One by one, they emerge for an SS man to inspect them and decide their fate. The SS man is handed their card, and he makes his decision while the prisoner's back is turned by handing the card to either a man on the right or left. In this way, no one knows whether they have been selected until later. The process is fast: a hut of two hundred men is "done" in a matter of three to four minutes, and a whole camp of twelve thousand men is judged in the course of an afternoon.
Levi is not selected, but he believes this is due to a mishap with the identification cards. Double food rations are given to the condemned, and they all wait in the bunks for the selection to be carried out throughout the camp. Levi sees a man named Kuhn thanking God that he was not chosen. Levi points out that in the bunk beside Kuhn lies a boy named Beppo who will be sent to the gas chambers. Levi condemns the abomination that occurred this day, and he states that if he were God, he would spit at Kuhn's prayer.
November brings days of rain, which causes the ground to become a muddy swamp. The impossible dream of staying dry would have brought Levi happiness, but even so, he points out the human ability to see a positive aspect of any circumstance. Working with a crew to dig a huge hole, Levi is constantly splattered with mud by a man named Kraus. Kraus is a Hungarian newcomer who does not yet understand the way to survive; he works too intensely without economizing his energy. Levi assumes that Kraus was a good civilian and worker in the outside world, but that he will not survive long in the camps. In an important moment of human connection, Levi tells Kraus a made-up dream in which Kraus came to dinner at Levi's family home.
Levi and Alberto wonder how long it has been since entering the camp, being dismissed from Ka-Be, taking the chemistry examination, and surviving the October selection. They also wonder what the future holds for the Italian prisoners—will they survive the winter? Though there are rumors that some of the chemists from their Kommando will be selected as analysts for the Polymerization Department, Levi and Alberto do not expect their strength to hold out until then. The "civilized world" will never know of the way the Germans liquidated the Lublin camp, and Levi and Alberto wonder when the same will occur at Auschwitz.
Unexpectedly, Levi is one of the three chosen to work in Doktor Pannwitz's laboratory. Alberto congratulates Levi without a shred of envy. They are friends and allies, and will continue to help each other. Now a specialized worker, Levi is entitled to new clothes and a weekly shaving. The Laboratory reminds Levi of studying at the university back in Italy, and he and the two other specialists believe that this will ensure their survival through the winter. Levi also makes plans to get better food rations by smuggling things out of the laboratory and selling them.
Everyone expects the Russians to arrive soon and liberate the camp, but the Germans keep things going in "wilful ignorance." They announce a new date for beginning the production of synthetic rubber, and keep operating the camp as usual. Though the changes in Levi's circumstances are joyous in that they afford him greater comforts and likely survival, they also cause him the "ferocious suffering of feeling [himself] a man again." In the laboratory, sharing the space with women leaves Levi and the other two specialists feeling shameful and embarrassed because of their physical appearance.
Analysis
Levi speculates that if the prison camps had lasted longer than they did, a new harsher language would have been created in order to express the brutality of what occurred. The reason for this speculation is that already-existing words were insufficient—Levi could not properly communicate his circumstances. Toiling all day in below-freezing and windy conditions, while wearing only thin clothes, was just one way in which the prisoners suffered. The "weakness, hunger and knowledge of the end drawing nearer" caused the suffering to be even more intense. This demonstrates the dual themes of survival and despair, and also Levi's belief that there is no sufficient language that can communicate the atrocities of the Holocaust.
The word "winter" carries multiple connotations, which Levi expresses using vivid imagery. The worst of these is the imminent selections, or thinning of the prisoners' numbers, in order to make space. This demonstrates the lack of control the prisoners had over their own fates. Though some were selected for death due to their age or health conditions, Levi believes that a great deal of selections were made randomly. He writes that his own survival was due to chance.
In the chapter "October 1944," Levi heightens the tension through the use of suspense. After recounting the suffering brought about by winter, he introduces the impending selections with the phrase "Because 'winter' means yet another thing." The words "because" and "yet" demonstrate the inevitability of the selections, which represent terror and death. Despite the sense of suspense, this chapter still matches the dispassionate and factual tone used throughout the book. For example, when a young and sturdy man named René is selected to die, Levi believes that his own card was confused with René's; the writer states that he does "not know what [he] will think tomorrow and later," but in the moment, he felt "no distinct emotion." The selection process is swift and brutal.
Levi uses rhetorical questions to criticize a man named Kuhn who prays and thanks God he was not selected to go to the gas chambers. The use of questions emphasizes the sheer brutality of what occurred, and also expresses Levi's anger and incredulity. After the repetition of asking questions, Levi finishes the chapter with the phrase, "If I was God, I would spit at Kuhn's prayer." This demonstrates a clear moral standing on Levi's part.
Despite the misery of heavy rains, hard work, and hunger, Levi comments that having a slight impression of fortune contributes immensely to survival because it "stops us crossing the threshold of despair and allows us to live." Even when conditions are the most terrible (with rain, wind, and no soup supplement), the option of ending it all via suicide can make things more bearable. Even the bleakest option becomes a source of optimism.
Not only do the prisoners have to wrestle internally with despair as well as face their oppressors (the Nazis and those above them in the chain of command), but their survival also depends on each other. Often, the prisoners work "in a chain," meaning that the rhythm of work can be set by each person. It has already been shown in the book how the way a fellow prisoner works impacts Levi. In an earlier chapter, someone carelessly placed a heavy load on Levi's shoulders, causing an injury. Here, Kraus's eager and clumsy movements while digging the hole result in mud splattering Levi. This causes Levi to explain the way that work ethics and survival greatly differ between the camps and the outside world. The generally accepted logic that the more one works, the more one earns and eats does not exist in the camps. Being beaten is preferable to working too hard because one can survive a beating, but death by exhaustion is common.
Levi tells Kraus a made-up story about a dream in which they had dinner at Levi's family home, and defines this as an important moment. In the dream, they eat a wonderful meal, talk with Levi's family, and sleep in a warm, dry bed. Though Levi pities and looks down on Kraus for believing this lie, the fact that Levi was compelled to tell the lie in the first place demonstrates concern for a fellow human being. This is also an example of how storytelling contributes to survival. Even though Levi expects Kraus to die soon in the camps, Levi provides Kraus this brief moment of happiness and hope, and thus helps him survive, at least for now.
The questions that Levi and Alberto ask about how long it has been since several important events have passed, and about the fate of their fellow Italian prisoners, demonstrate their lack of certainty and control. Their physical surroundings reflect their internal despair: half of "Bau 939 is a heap of twisted metal and smashed concrete..." Though things begin to look up for Levi as he is selected to work as a specialist in the laboratory, the physical improvement of his circumstances also brings a new kind of despair. The "suffering of feeling [himself] a man again" parallels the time Levi spent convalescing in Ka-Be, except that this time, the presence of women in the laboratory makes Levi aware and ashamed of his appearance.
As Levi describes the dehumanizing way the girls in the laboratory treat him, he repeats the phrase "This year has gone by so quickly" in different contexts. This anaphora first appears as the girls casually discuss their Christmas plans, causing Levi to reflect on the difference between his life in the present compared to the previous Christmas. The previous year, he was a free man (though still an outlaw) with a name and family, an eager and restless mind, and an agile and healthy body. Levi used to think about things larger than himself, including the concepts of good and evil, of nature and laws, and of art and expression. As a prisoner, he could only concern himself with suffering through extreme hunger and cold. After imagining a failed attempt to explain this to one of the girls working at the laboratory, Levi ends the chapter by saying again, "This year has gone by so quickly."
