Summary
Highlights
Primo Levi, an author studied in senior year, was born in Turin in 1919 to a Jewish family. His father, Cesare Levi, an engineer, greatly influenced his son's passion for reading and science. Levi completed classical high school in 1937 and enrolled in the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Turin, a profession that would later prove crucial in his life.
The year 1938 saw the institution of racial laws in Italy, which severely discriminated against Jewish people. Despite these laws, Levi managed to graduate in chemistry in 1941. He noted that the racial laws, in a way, restored his free will. In 1943, after the armistice, Levi joined the partisan resistance. In 1944, he was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Levi survived Auschwitz due to his rudimentary knowledge of German and, more importantly, his chemical skills, which led to his assignment to a synthetic rubber factory. In January 1945, just before the Red Army's arrival, Levi fell ill and was admitted to the camp's infirmary. This illness saved him from the death march, which claimed the life of his friend Alberto. In 1947, Levi published "Se questo è un uomo," which initially received limited recognition but later gained significant acclaim.
Levi continued his writing career, viewing his work as a chemist's approach to weighing, dividing, measuring, and judging based on certain evidence. His activities also included working as a chemist during the 1950s. In 1955, "Se questo è un uomo" was re-published by Einaudi, bringing him widespread success. Subsequent works include "La tregua" (The Truce, 1963), "Il sistema periodico" (The Periodic Table, 1975), "La chiave a stella" (The Wrench), "Se non ora, quando?" (If Not Now, When?), and "I sommersi e i salvati" (The Drowned and the Saved, 1986). He retired in the 1970s to dedicate himself entirely to writing. Levi died in 1987, with the circumstances of his death remaining a mystery.
"Se questo è un uomo" is structured into seventeen chapters, broadly divided into three parts: deportation, the Auschwitz camp experience, and liberation. The first chapter, "Il viaggio," describes Levi's transit through the Fossoli camp, highlighting the initial dehumanization and loss of identity. The second chapter, "Il fondo," depicts the complete deprivation endured by prisoners upon arrival at Auschwitz, including tattooing numbers and the paradoxical inscription 'Arbeit macht frei' (work sets you free).
Levi quickly identified food scarcity and language barriers as major problems in the camp. A brief respite could be found in the infirmary, as Levi himself experienced when he injured his foot. Work, especially skilled labor like his chemical expertise, was crucial for survival. He and his friend Alberto worked in Block 45. Later, an opportunity arose to work in a chemistry lab, for which Levi passed an examination, offering him a better chance of survival, though it was ultimately his illness that saved him from the death march.
Chapter nine, "I sommersi e i salvati," explains the distinction between those who succumb to the camp's dehumanizing conditions (the drowned) and those who find ways to survive (the saved), often through privileged work positions. Chapter eleven, "Il canto di Ulisse," showcases the power of literature. Levi recounts an episode where he recites Ulysses' canto from Dante's Inferno to a fellow prisoner, allowing for a temporary escape from the camp's horrors and a reconnection with lost humanity. The novel concludes with the liberation of the camp by the Red Army on January 27, 1945, a date now commemorated as Holocaust Remembrance Day.