Comparing Survival In Auschwitz By Levi And Ordinary Men

The composers of, Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher Browning, both document the transition from men; to valueless and undeserving victims of the Holocaust. Browning tries to analyze how “ordinary men” can create immoral acts of violence, turning them into the most efficient senseless killers. Levi survives his duration at Auschwitz by reminding himself that just a world outside our own, something and someone is pure and whole, not corrupt, not savage, extraneous to hatred and terror; something difficult to define but for which it was worth surviving (Levi 1996, 121). While both books show dehumanization, the personages in the pages are not men;

their humanity has already been buried under an offense received or have been buried by themselves. Some have resisted.
In chapter 9 of Survival in Auschwitz, the struggle to survive as a Holocaust victim in the Lager (concentration camp) is without interruption.

Levi writes about memoirs of the people and the incidents that happened in the Lager. Thousands of individuals were known as the “muselmann” which meant those who were old and doomed to selection, despite the fact that there were those who influenced Levi to reach salvation. In Auschwitz, if you were old, sick or could not work, you were sent to the crematory. If you were lucky, you were sent to the Ka-Be for a doctor to examine you improperly to say the least. Levi spoke about a man named Elias Lindzin, who he described as the Hercules in the Chemical Kommando. Levi was fascinated that Elias, a 5-foot tall dwarf was able to escape death and survive like him momentarily. Elias, a tailor and carpenter was strong and was able to carry more sacks of cement than anyone in his group. Levi never saw him rest, quiet or ill, he imagined Elias a free man, but despite his fame as being exceptional in the Lager, no one could comprehend why this man’s life was ended by

chance.
Primo Levi addresses, “to destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded.” (Levi 1996, 150). In the lager, one must apply three methods to escape extermination: Organization, pity and theft. Henri, a twenty-two year old had come up with this organic theory to survive after the death of his brother in the camp. While Levi enjoys the talks and moments with Henri, he feels that the warmth and affection of his sorrowful soul may be near, but it seems almost impossible. Levi describes Henri as extremely intelligent and scientific, but once again, it is not rare for a man to lose himself, his rise or fall is tied to the destinies of his neighbors (Levi 1996, 88). In the end, he doesn’t wish to see him again.
When we think about the barbarity in the most notorious mass genocide in our history, we often think that these soldiers or perpetrators are somewhat different from everyone else. Maybe they are normal or ordinary. We ask ourselves if these perpetrators have any moral sensibility to kill the innocent for pleasure or if they are merely just exercising civil obedience. Christopher Browning tells a story of the men who are ordered to carry out horrific deeds in the Reserve Police Battalion 101. In the first chapter, we are introduced to Major Wilhelm Trapp who is ordering his men to round up the Jews in the village of Jozefow. The Jews were going to be sent away to concentration camps, but first they must shoot the women, children and the elderly. This wasn’t the most surprising aspect of the roll call. It was in fact a protocol of the briefing. The 55 year- old Major Wilhelm Trapp was “pale and nervous, with choking voice and tears in his eyes, the battalion, had to perform a frightfully unpleasant task.”(Browning 1998, 2). After describing the assignment to his men, he must reassure that it was ok to kill these innocent casualties and if one was not up to the task, they could step out. We would imagine that anyone in Trapp’s position could avoid executing thousands of people, but Browning provides a cliffhanger, in which we aren’t told if Trapp will abstain from his assignment.
Civilians were often recruited as soldiers and didn’t want to disappoint their superiors or to be seen as weak.

While, the commands given to them seemed atrocious, they had to be reminded that they were onset of war. Browning details the shootings of the Jozefow villagers, and while only thirteen took the opportunity to participate in the firing squad, there were those who sought to avoid the killings by taking extra time in the roundup hiding from their officers, and intentionally missing their victims (Browning 1998, 62-65). After the massacre was over, the men returned back to their barracks where they drank the memories away of the killing that was

participated.
The effects of the Third Reich orders were played out in a dramatic case study of one officer known as Lieutenant Heinz Buchmann. During the massacre in Lomanzy, Buchmann distinguished himself as one who oppose to killing innocent women and children. He would “in no case participate in such an action in which defenseless women and children were shot”(Browning 1998, 56). Although he stayed in his position much longer than expected, he cracked under pressure. Not only did Buchmann complain, he would write a report to Hamburg and would not carry out his tasks. Buchmann found himself giving the same orders as Trapp, giving him men the right to step out. While his resistance was against the bureaucratic system, he believed in Jewish humanity rather than his order police structure.
Chapter 18 of Ordinary Men, Browning discusses Levi’s essay called “The Gray Zone” in which even perpetrators were encompassed in the gray zone with victims of the holocaust. An SS man known as Muhsfeld of the Birkenau crematoria, faced the survival of a sixteen year old girl while clearing out the gas chamber. Muhsfeld briefly hesitated. In the end he ordered the girl’s death but quickly left before his orders were carried out (Browning 1998, 187). There are those who see two sides of the spectrum: black and white or good and evil. Most people are somewhere in the middle. Levi’s argument of ” The Gray Zone” is that even the most cruel perpetrators that survive are not completely pure but they find themselves living in the middle, they are forced to survive of the cost of somebody else, even themselves are dehumanized.