Classification and Methodology
In Survival in Auschwitz, Levi writes of his experience in the Nazi concentration camps where the Germans planned and carried out the systematic murder of Jews, Roma, LGBT, and political dissidents. Several times in the book, Levi describes the German "love for classification" which persisted even up to the very end of the operation. As the Germans herded out thousands of healthy prisoners on a so-called evacuation march, they divided the remaining sick prisoners into Jews and non-Jews. This surprised no one, and Levi characterizes this love for classification as "national."
The purging of prisoners was known as the Selection, and it occurs in October of 1944 as well as at other moments in the book. In the October 1944 Selection, the Germans made their decisions about all twelve thousand men at the camp in the course of a single afternoon using a fast and brutal judgment system. An SS officer placed each prisoner's identification card in the hands of a man either to his right or his left, and this determined each prisoner's fate. Naturally, mistakes were made; Levi suspects that his own survival was due to a mixup with the cards. But the sinister part is that these mistakes don't matter to the Nazis, because the Jews were seen as uniformly expendable.
Dehumanization
Anyone sent to the camps was dehumanized, but in the hierarchy created by the Nazis, the Jews were at the very bottom and not even considered human. Those who enter the camps are no longer called by their names, but by a number tattooed onto their bodies. They were robbed of every possession and every memento that reminded them of their own membership to the human race. They were shaved, shorn, and robbed of their identities. Combining this dehumanization with starvation and brutal work conditions, it was nearly impossible to think about anything beyond work, despair, and hunger. Levi remembers echoes of his humanity while convalescing in Ka-Be, but oppression breaks the man in him.
Survival of the Body and the Spirit
The author does not necessarily believe in the capacity of the human spirit to find a way to survive in the long term, but asserts that each person finds a way to survive in the short term, and then repeats the process over and over again. An important theme in the book is the varying ways in which this is done by the survivors. Some of the more successful were able to turn their imprisonment into a kind of contest between themselves and the Germans, focusing each day on beating them, and outwitting the system. Others who were physically stronger and therefore better able to survive used this factor to overcome the physical punishment that was inflicted on them and survived out of a physical will rather than a spiritual one. The author contends throughout the book that humans are predisposed never to realize that they are suffering ultimate misery, or experiencing ultimate happiness, therefore allowing themselves to rationalize how they are feeling each day and continuing to survive despite the odds. This theme shows that there is no one way to survive but that survival depends rather on a combination of personality, health, and random circumstances.
The Importance of Storytelling
In the "Author's Prelude," Levi states that he wrote the book because he felt he needed to tell his story and the collective story of the Jews who were oppressed by the Nazis. The need for concentration camp survivors to share what happened was, according to Levi, as strong as elementary needs such as those for food, water, and shelter. In Chapter 5 ("Our Nights"), Levi has a nightmare in which his sister and a large group of people ignore him as he tries to recount his experiences. This anxiety of not being heard as he tries to share his story is one that accompanies him in the waking world as well.
In Chapter 14 ("Kraus"), Levi tells a fellow prisoner named Kraus a story about a dream he says he had in which Kraus came to Levi's family home and was given a place of safety, warmth, and nourishment. Though this story is false, Levi felt compelled in that moment to share it with Kraus in order to provide him with a good feeling. Levi defined it as an important moment, even though Kraus could mean nothing to him at the time of his own suffering. Sharing stories about food, family, and home could be torturous, but it was something that the prisoners still engaged in.
Levi wants the collective world to participate in this story because he believes that the whole world is implicated in what happened.
Human Connection
In the concentration camps, the rules and dynamics of social relations differed greatly from those of the outside world. According to Levi, the law of the Lager said, "eat your own bread, and if you can, that of your neighbour." In other words, every man was out for himself. Stealing was common, even if it deprived another person of something essential. Despite all of the suffering, despair, and abuse, Levi still illustrates in his book important moments of human connection that he experienced in the camps. One example is his friendship with Alberto. Friends from university, the two are fortunate to be in the same block after Levi is discharged from the infirmary. Not only do they share their schemes and acquisitions of extra food rations, but they provide each other with emotional strength. The trust in this friendship was important for both of them.
Another example of human connection is the way that Lorenzo, an Italian citizen, provides Levi with leftover soup, clothing, and communication with someone back home in Italy. Though Lorenzo has more privileges than Levi (likely he is not a Jew), he risks helping Levi without expecting anything in return. Levi partially credits his survival to Lorenzo.
As the order of the camp falls apart towards the end of the book, human connection begins to flourish in a limited capacity again as the patients in the Infektionsabteilung (infectious disease department) band together for survival. Those who cannot work give part of their food rations to Levi and the Frenchmen to fuel their efforts to procure food for everyone. Levi has a stronger relationship with the Frenchmen than with the others, but they still all care for one another.
Luck and Chance
Many times throughout the book, Levi states that his survival came down to luck and chance. Though other factors also contributed (such as Lorenzo's help), Levi thinks that it was luck most of all that saw him through the camps. In the beginning of the book, for example, Levi states that it was his "good fortune" to be sent to Auschwitz in 1944, as opposed to earlier. This is because the Nazis had decided to extend the average lifespan of prisoners in order to use their slave labor. Another example is in the chapter concerning the October 1944 selections, where Levi writes, "The fact that I was not selected depended above all on chance..." The fact of this is that Levi's luck could mean the death of another—such as during the October 1944 selections, where Levi's card was likely mixed up with that of another. This is something that those in the camps had to numb themselves to in order to focus on their own survival. Time spent feeling guilty about one's own luck wasted precious energy.
Art, Science, and Humanity
Unsurprisingly, Levi's internment at Auschwitz radically shifted the things that he thought about on a daily basis. Levi writes that before being imprisoned at the camp, he "used to think of many, far-away places: of [his] work, of the end of the war, of good and evil, of the nature of things and of the laws which govern human actions; and also of the mountains, of singing and loving, of music, of poetry." Once in the camp, his attention was trained mostly on the physical circumstances, mainly his hunger and the grueling work. But Levi's mind is shown to be sensitive, scientific, and concerned with greater issues of humanity. This can be seen in the very structure of the book, which reads like a factual log accompanied by meditations on what Levi observed and experienced. Though he states at one point that his propensity to think too much could get him killed, the opposite could also be true: Levi's scientific and artistic nature contributed to his survival. His ability to notice and remember details, for example, assisted his efforts to procure more food rations by engaging in illegal operations with Alberto.
