Survival in Auschwitz is a memoir written by Primo Levi, an Italian Jew who was imprisoned in one of the Nazis' infamous death camps from 1944 through to the fall of the Third Reich in late 1945. Levi states that he did not write the book just to record the atrocities perpetrated at Auschwitz, but rather to offer cases for human study. Survival In Auschwitz is Levi's account of the ten months he spent in the camp, witnessing and experiencing unimaginable cruelty and the breaking down of his humanity. In Italian, the title of the book is If This Is a Man, reflecting the dehumanization that occurred in the camps. The book is written with a restrained (and at times, detached) tone that allows the facts to bear their own witness.
Levi and a group of fellow Italian Jewish men are sent to a sub-camp in Auschwitz called Monowitz-Buna. It is the site of a large factory complex for producing synthetic rubber, though not a single pound of rubber is ever produced. Levi learns the rules of life in the camp: who to obey, how to follow orders given in foreign languages, how much or little to work, and how to procure more food, among other things. All the newcomers are initiated into the camp by being shaved, sheared, and stripped of their clothes and possessions. Every day consists of backbreaking labor, abuse, and too little food. A work injury sends Levi to Ka-Be (the infirmary), where he has the chance to recover and observe Auschwitz with a clearer consciousness. Upon discharge, Levi is assigned to a new Block, but luckily he encounters his best friend Alberto. They continue the daily torture of hard work with little food, but work together to scheme ways to help their survival. Levi provides examples of individuals he encountered who used their strength, wits, cunning, manipulation, and/or charm to heighten their own chances of survival.
A squad known as the Chemical Kommando is formed (including Levi and Alberto), but the members are forced to do pointless labor despite their specialized skills. Each man in this Kommando takes a chemistry examination, but the prisoners have learned not to expect anything good to come their way in the camps. On another day, Levi becomes obsessed with remembering and translating the Canto of Ulysses, part of the Italian poet Dante's Inferno, feeling that this poem could explain their fate. In an incredible gesture of compassion and humanity, an Italian civilian worker named Lorenzo begins regularly providing Levi with extra food rations. He even helps Levi communicate with someone back home in Italy. Lorenzo does all of this from his own sense of goodness without expecting anything in return, and Levi partly credits his survival to Lorenzo. After the summer, things start to look down as they head into colder months. To make space for incoming prisoners, the SS officers select prisoners to be sent to the gas chambers. Levi survives the October Selection of 1944 due to luck. During the winter, Levi is fortunate to be chosen to work in the camp's chemical laboratory, ensuring his protection from outdoor labor in freezing temperatures. He and Alberto engage in small, illegal actions to procure more food, but they feel ashamed and broken upon witnessing the execution of a prisoner rebel who helped blow up a crematorium. Levi falls ill with scarlet fever and stays in the infirmary as Alberto and thousands of others march to what they believe is safety, but is actually death. Alberto is never heard from again. Levi and two Frenchmen work to collectively help the men in their room survive the Nazi abandonment of the camp and wait until the Russians arrive. The remaining survivors are liberated. Levi shares that he returned to his home in Turin and worked at a paint factory until his retirement. He hopes to see his French friend Charles again in person.
Levi originally had trouble getting his memoir published due to some publishers believing that it was too soon for such an account. Other works by Levi won literary awards, and though this particular one did not, it remains an important Holocaust text. Survival in Auschwitz is a brutal account of what really went on inside the death camps, and is also surprisingly honest about the random nature of survival. Levi recorded what he saw and experienced so that it would never be forgotten and so that it would serve as a warning to future generations about what can happen when good people do nothing as evil flourishes around them. The book explores themes such as survival, dehumanization, and the importance of storytelling.
