Survival In Auschwitz Sparknotes

On December 13, 1943, a twenty four year old, Jewish-Italian man’s life was changed forever. This Jewish-Italian man’s name is Primo Levi. Survival In Auschwitz, a book written by Primo Levi, portrays the horrific experience Levi lived through. Levi was captured by the Fascist Militia who forced Levi, along with hundreds of others, into wagons where they would be transported to a holding camp until they were taken to Auschwitz. There were 12 wagons that would take all of the 650 captured men to the camp of Auschwitz in Poland. Immediately upon their arrival to the camp, they were asked simple questions, such as “healthy or ill?’. Depending on the response they would give, they would be sent in two different directions. The book describes this

process to take no longer than ten minutes. Levi states, “What happened to the others, to the women, to the children, to the old men, we could establish neither then nor later: the night swallowed them up, purely and simply”. (page 11).
Levi then informs his readers that they were stripped of everything. Their clothes were gone, all their cherished belongings were taken from them, they were naked and had nothing. They were given striped clothing that they would all wear along with new names. Now, these names were not typical names, but they were numbers. The number given to them is how they were referred to from that time forward. The Nazi’s treated them like they were not humans, but just a number. Levi was renamed, “Haftling” and given the number 174517 that was tattooed with a small needle on his left arm. Levi discusses briefly about the specific numbers and the significance that the number carried. The numbers 30,000 to 80,000 were those people that they were encouraged to respect. The numbers 116,000 or 117,000 were the Geeks of Salonica, however, this number was decreasing significantly. Starvation, weakness, and killing were to blame from the jurassic decrease in numbers. The higher numbers, were referred to as the “freshman”. These people were the newcomers to the camp and were be often laughed at with all the questions and were so corrupted they would believe about anything (you) the Nazis would tell them. They continued to be ridiculed until other groups came in putting them behind the new “freshman” of Auschwitz.
Throughout the book, Levi makes many references to what the Auschwitz camp really was like, most of the prisoners referring to Auschwitz as what hell would be like.

“This is hell. A huge empty room: we are tired, standing on our feet, with a tap which drips while we cannot drink the water and we wait for something which will certainly be terrible, and nothing happens and nothing continues to happen”. (page 16). Not only are the people who were captured referred to as prisoners, but they are treated as if they are just a number. The Nazi’s treated Levi, along with thousands of others, in such an inhumane way. Levi goes into graphic detail throughout his book to allow his readers to almost visualize the camp as if they were there with him. With his quote above, he describes Auschwitz as to what he envisioned hell would be like. They have no water, very thin soup with maybe a scrap of potato if they are lucky. The Nazi’s took everything they have once loved away from them, and forced them into a whole new world. This camp is filled with “prisoners” wearing striped clothing and shoes that do not fit their feet, creating horrific blisters and causing infections on their feet, which only worsened when they would work. Their working days were long and brutal. In the winter time, a working day was 8am to 12 am and 12:30 pm to 4pm. In the summer, the working days were from 6:30 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 6 pm. “Such will be our life. Every day, according to the established rhythm,

Ausrϋcken and Einrϋcken, go out, come in; work, sleep and eat; fall ill, get better or die”. (page 32). This phrase Levi revealed stuck with me throughout the book. This was their “negotiable” schedule. Levi also hints at the fact that they would soon realize to not even ask questions nor communicate when asked to complete a task. Levi says they learned to pretend they knew what was going on and to complete the tasks, or they would not live. During my research, I came across a secondary scholarly source, Peter Tammes. I. Tammes’ article, he stated: “Of the Jewish inhabitants of Amsterdam 25.9% survived the Holocaust.” Tammes goes into depth with the ways one can could avoid deportation into these camps. Aside from what I learned from Levi about the horrible inhumane treatment that occurred in this camp , I also gained some insight from Tammes. Tammes stated: “Jews had to rely above all on non-Jews to find refuge as well as food and falsified documents.” With my newly obtained knowledge on this traumatic event in history, I have come across information that reveals the only way to survive was to do as one was told, and sometimes, that was not even enough. I had no idea that those prisoners in the camps actually relied on“non-jews” as a source of survival.
Primo Levi’s book, Survival in Auschwitz, should be preserved for many reasons.

In order for our world to be properly informed on historical events, reading people’s personal experiences of events they lived through creates a whole new perspective and insight as to the actual occurrences that took place at that time in history. We can turn to history textbooks but the textbooks do not provide the true reality of what was experienced by the people living during that period. Because this time period is very traumatic and a horrific historical event, you can read facts that cover much of what happened and get an idea of the timeline of the Holocaust. However reading Levi’s own personal experiences help to make the reader feel what was actually occurring and not just a textbook of facts. In my Composition II class first semester, we were told to research archives, and shockingly enough, I did my archive paper over the Holocaust. I was able to perceive a whole new understanding of this historical event through reading stories of survivors. I read their journals written during the Holocaust and was able to illustrate the event more throughrougly through the graphic stories they would reveal in their writings. Through my secondary scholarly source, I came across a an article by Erin Denton which stated, “When Primo Levi fell to his death on April 11, 1987, many believed that he had finally yielded to the horrors of Auschwitz (Gambetta, 1999).” This section spoke to me with how

cruel it really was in Auschwitz.
In chapter 27, the textbook introduces the “Final Solution”. The Final Solution was “the attempted physical extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazis during the World War II. In this chapter, the Holocaust is explained and this is an example of how the book reflects back into the Western Civilization course. The Auschwitz Concentration Camp was a network of centralization and death camps near Oswiecim, Poland. These camps operated with the overall goal to kill as many Jews as possible. As a traumatic result, their goal created this unforgettable event in history. I was able to learn about the real experiences of the prisoners through Primo Levi’s book where he documented his own personal experience.
Primo Levi wrote his book for the overall intention to share the horrific journey he personally had in Auschwitz. Not only did Levi want to reveal the horrors he experienced along with thousands of others, but also for another reason. Personally, I believe Levi wrote this out of an almost motivational push for his readers. The reason I think this is because he survived Auschwitz. Levi overcame many obstacles, such as: lack of food and water, poor clothing, horrific sleeping conditions, and illness along the way. I think his motive in sharing his story is an example of strength and to hold on tight and push through life. Of course, Levi’s experience of this example of “strength” is much more significant than what we can relate to in our daily lives, but overall, to portray persistence. This persistence is to know your life has a purpose and to create a strong endurance in life no matter what obstacles you might have to overcome. I got this idea throughout the book when Levi revealed the traumatic obstacles he overpowered and came out of the traumatic event a survivor.