Survival in Auschwitz
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The harrowing experience of Primo Levi, detailed in his book Survival in Auschwitz, was the experience of millions of people in World War II. The book is powerful and affecting, and it also serves as a very strong portrayal of the entire era of which the Holocaust is a part. This book presents the real effects of history, not the changes in leadership and the movements of armies but the changes in the lives of real individuals who become the victims of other people's hatreds an ambitions. No single book can be considered a complete history of the "final solution" or its aftermath, but a book such as this one provides strong insights into the effect such horrors had on the people against whom the Final Solution was directed. As we consider what Levi has to say about that era and his description of what was done to himself and others, we will certainly ask ourselves how such things could occur and whether this era can be considered a deviation from the norm, an aberration, or a logical result of the development of Western European society. In some ways, it can be all three. The atmosphere that made the rise of the Nazis possible was clearly a logical development of history if not of Western civilization as such, though the form taken and the horrors perpetrated are an aberration deriving from the peculiar mindset and charismatic abilities of Adolf Hitler and some of his followers.Primo Levi was a 25-year old chemist and an Italian of Jewish descent, according to the Naz
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ction: that man is fundamentally brutal, egoistic and stupid in his conduct once every civilized institution is taken away, and that the Haftling is consequently nothing but a man without inhibitions. We believe, rather, that the only conclusion to be drawn is that in the face of driving necessity and physical disabilities many social habits and instincts are reduced to silence (Levi 87).
Levi extends his discussion to consider various other possibilities found in various oppositions, such as that in his distinction between the saved and the drowned. Ultimately, though, we have to admit that there is something in the human being that at times rises to a new level of brutality against others. This can be seen at various times in history and is not at all related solely to Western Civilization, which indeed seems to control some of these instincts better than did earlier civilizations.
Part of the Nazi effort against the prisoners in the camps was to strip away their humanity to as great a degree as possible, in part as a means of control, in part as an assertion of their own superiority. Those who survived and were able to become men again were those who found they could rely on themselves in the never-ending struggle to surv
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2128
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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