Survival in Auschwitz

If this be a man.

Primo Levi's account of his time in Auschwitz was horrifying to the extreme. I read this book in a college-level Holocaust course. The descent your mind must make into the world of Auschwitz is torturous and difficult, but the final result is a better understanding of the atrocities carried out by Nazi Germany. Definitely a profitable read, but be prepared to be shocked.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was founded in 1941 and make history in 4 years, 1.5 million deaths were estimated during this period at this particular camp. Primo Levi had a positive impact on my life, he was a strong man who faced a terrible tragedy.

In this story the only main character in the book was Primo, who is also the narrator. Promo was a brave soul who spook the truth about how the Jewish community was treated during the holocaust. Throughout the entire book he described how Germans brutally treated Jewish people. I was emotionally connected to the book, well I was reading I could metal image the scenarios and put myself in his shoes. The book contains graphic and violent events which causes the reader to feel sad. I strongly encourage to read the book till the end find out how he gets out of Auschwitz.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Decent read

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
187 Pages

This book has a lot of details about living in Auschwitz. It is detailed, dry, and although the page count is low, it is a long book. If one is highly interested in how Auschwitz was, then I think this book would be a good choice. However, if you aren't completely interested in all of the small details, I do recommend you choose a different book to read.
Although I would rather have read a different book, this book's details were enjoyable. The emotions and actions of the people living in Auschwitz are real and enticing throughout the book.
Overall, I find that although I did slightly enjoy the book, I did not enjoy reading it. As I previously stated, it is dry, and you really must be into learning about all of what was included in living in Auschwitz to truly enjoy this book, and I'm not.
Also, however, I believe one must be at least seventeen to truly comprehend the words written, the situations, actions, and emotions conveyed in the book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Incredible Levi

This book was one of the most challenging i have ever read. With all of the unfamiliar vocabulary, complex situations, and the straight on sadness, it was a very intricate and brilliant novel. When everyone had evacuated the camp, Primo and about 20 others who were ill with scarlet fever, had been forced to stay, and it was he who saved them with his courage and stubbornness to stay alive, Primo had to go out in the freezing cold to find food and warmth. In a shorter version, he kept the saying "put others before yourself" in his mind even though for 10 long months all his concentration was on how to get through even a single day. People nowadays are so consumed with their lives that they can't even be kind to one another unless it has to do with money. If you were in Primo's shoes, tell me, what would you've done? While reading "Survival in Auschwitz", Primo makes you stop and think about what's really going on and how one thing affects everything! In his book it says "To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded. Here we are, docile under your gaze; from our side you have nothing more to fear; no acts of violence, no words of defiance, not even a look of judgment left." I think Levi wrote his book because he wanted to show us just how everything from the torture to the faith was so true and heartbreaking. Primo Levi has written an outstanding book that will blow your mind.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

After reading 'Night' by Elie Weisel which takes you from exportation to repatriation with candor, force, and simplicity, this seemed to have a much more monotone voice. It's still worth reading and is very educational and moving, however, I felt the scientist-type tone made it a less compelling read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

over my head

i have always been really interested in the holocaust, so when i found survival in auschwitz on a bookshelf in my house, i couldnt wait to read it. it was a very good and intense book, and at times i believe it was above my level of comprehension. i am only 14, but a mature reader. i think it will have a bigger effect on me when i re-read it in a few years, but i still loved it, and if you enjoy holocasut books, it is a must-read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Story!

Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi, takes place in the early to mid 1940¿s. This story of cruelty and survival is about the ten months Levi was forced to live in the concentration camp. This is a well-written book which expresses feelings of excitement, sarcasm, fear, and relief. This book was incredibly enjoyable to read. Levi¿s style is both original and powerful, and he portrays his point in an effective manner. Levi told his story using mainly his own experiences, intertwined with some history on the Holocaust. This was a convincing story of the life in Auschwitz.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Review of Levi¿s Survival in Auschwitz

Primo Levi¿s memoir, Survival in Auschwitz, is a moving account of one young man¿s struggle for survival in the notorious Polish concentration camp. Levi employs a unique narrative structure, emphasizing the power of words both thematically and stylistically. Levi is only twenty-five when he enters the camp, and his storytelling does much to reveal the devastating impact that concentration camps had on the psyche and on the spirit. Levi confronts the harsh reality of what life in Auschwitz means, and how different it is from any form of civilization. ¿Here the struggle to survive is without respite,¿ he writes, ¿because everyone is desperately and ferociously alone¿ (88). One of the evil images that haunts Levi will haunt readers as well: ¿an emaciated man, with head dropped and shoulders curved, on whose face and in whose eyes not a trace of a thought is to be seen¿ (90). In clear contrast to the camp¿s dehumanizing effects on its victims, Levi uses language to stir the hearts of his readers. In a kind of dictionary of suffering, he gives the reader the terms of his old existence: Buna, where young men labor in a factory that will never produce synthetic rubber; Ka-Be, the infirmary where Levi is granted a few weeks¿ rest to recover from a foot injury, and Selekcja, the Polish word for ¿selection,¿ that seals the fate of those marked for the crematorium. Because the camp contains Jews and other prisoners from all parts of Europe, facility with multiple languages represents a survival tool as well as a mark of education. Levi tells the success story of young man, Henri, who is able to cultivate many contacts because he speaks four languages. In one of the book¿s most heart-stirring passages, Levi attempts to translate Dante¿s canto of Ulysses into French in an effort to increase a friend¿s understanding of his heritage and the remnants of his humanity (112). As Levi notes in the foreword, his narrative is not strictly chronological¿the main events are in 1944, but Levi does not give dates to events until the last few days in camp, after the Germans have evacuated. In one chapter, Levi has to ask himself, ¿How many months have gone by since we entered the camp?¿ Eventually he asks the more sobering question, ¿how many of us will be alive at the new year?¿ (136). That Levi can begin to keep track of time after the camp¿s liquidation signifies his return to a life where the future is more than another day of deprivation and suffering. At one point, Levi notes that the camp term for ¿never,¿ is morgen früh, German for tomorrow morning (133). Though Levi¿s book is powerful for the factual events it recounts, the questions it raises leave the most lasting impact. Survival in Auschwitz asks what makes a human, what it takes to destroy that humanity, and humanity is recovered. Many readers wishing to learn more about the Holocaust or concentration camps will find Levi¿s work powerful and enriching. Perhaps more importantly, these readers will continue to ask Levi¿s questions in today¿s society.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

"It makes you feel like if you were in the Concentration camp"

THE BEST OF THE BEST!!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a soul searching book, a must have.

Primo Levi, the author and subject of the autobiography, was arrested in December, 1943. An anti-Fascist, Italian Jew, he was sent to a prison camp in Italy and then deported to Auschwitz in February, 1944. Levi survived in Auschwitz largely because by 1944, the Nazis had suspended full-effort genocide in preference to enforced convict labor. When the camp was evacuated in January, 1945. This book goes deep into man and what his valus are and what his view on life and death are when faced with extream trials. The story was true and we should not forget, so we don't make the same mistakes.

Chapter 3: Why do some prisoners bother to wash when they can?

Chapter 7: How has life in Auschwitz changed the prisoners' values?

How about this angle?

The last reviewer hit the nail on the head with his questioning of the title, here in Britain it's called 'If this is a man', and you must ask, is the book anout 'survival in Auschwitz', or is it about the effect of Auschwitz on man? Levi's survival is nothing more than a result of the person he became, the non-man

An Unsanitized View of How it really was!

It gave a very honest unsanitized view into the horror of the horrendousness of Auschwitz

Poor translation of title

This is one of the great books of the 20th century, in which a deeply humane man describes his experiences without rancor. Pity about the sensational title used in the US, though; in Britain you will find the book with its correct Italian title, 'If this is a man'. More eliptical, more poetic, but closer to Levi's humane vision.

Most Important Writer of the 20th Century ?

In this and his other books Primo Levi without disintegrating into the rhetoric of hate teaches all of us the evils of out of control zealotry and the necessity for all of us to maintain a constant vigil to prevent such horrors from reoccuring. I cannot recommend enough that you read this and 'The Drowned and the Saved'. These two books should be required reading for every person and would, if learned from by the reader make both a better person and a better society for all. I cannot recommend Primo Levi's work enough -- if you only read two more books in your life these two are the ones to read.

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