A Man of Few Words: The Bricklayer of Auschwitz Who Saved Primo Levi

'Nobody knows how much I owe that man,' Primo Levi said of the bricklayer who saved his life at Auschwitz-Birkenau. For six months, Lorenzo Perrone risked his own life to smuggle food, letters and clothing to prisoners. Without Perrone, Levi could not have survived and the world would have been deprived of his writing.

In A Man of Few Words, Carlo Greppi pieces together the life of Perrone, a near destitute labourer with little formal education. Despite their stark differences, Levi and Per...