If This Is a Man (review)

@agatha

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· 1 week ago

By Primo Levi

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Primo Levi was born in 1919 in Turin and was deported to Auschwitz during World War II. Director of a resin factory and a self-described "militant chemist," he became a writer after the nightmare of the concentration camps, not for the pleasure of revenge but to reaffirm the possibility of a reasonable use of a man's life. His books, fiercely commemorative, are nevertheless marked by a tenacious love for life, a subtle irony, a sort of joy for this life that can finally be lived again.

In 1947, he published his first book, If This Is a Man, which recounts the events of his deportation to Germany and his stay in various Nazi concentration camps.

His second book, The Truce (1963), which is the natural continuation of the first, tells the story of the return home, of the slow reconquest of civilization.

In 1967, he won the Bagutta Prize with a volume of fantastic stories, Natural Histories, which put contemporary society on trial, a theme he revisited in 1971 with Flaw of Form.

In 1975 with The Periodic Table he returned to autobiographical themes, in 1979 he won the Strega Prize with The Wrench, and in 1982 he published If Not Now, When?, his first novel.

SETTING AND PERIOD

The book is set in a death camp, Auschwitz, located in Poland, during the period of World War II, precisely from February 1944 to January 27, 1945. It was written from the end of 1945 to early 1947.

PLOT

Jews interned in the camp of Fossoli (Modena) in February 1944 are transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

During the train journey, there are 45 people in Primo's wagon. Upon arrival at Auschwitz, men and women are separated. They learn that they must work and that they are less than nothing. Primo is assigned to block number 30, he settles into his bunk with Diena. He cannot sleep and keeps asking questions, to which Diena has no answers. He falls asleep, but it is not a deep sleep, because he feels threatened.

In the morning, in a few minutes, they must dress and wash in an uninviting environment, the water is not potable and smells disgusting. After just one week, he considers it useless, given the condition of the water and the environment in which he works, but one day he meets Sergeant Steinlauf, who explains that washing is not about regulations, but about dignity, to stay alive.

While working, he gets injured and is hospitalized in Ka-Be (infirmary), where he is treated.

When he leaves, he is assigned to block 45, the same as Alberto, his best friend.

In a dream, he sees his sister, some of his friends, and other people; he starts to tell various things about the camp: he realizes that no one is listening and his sister gets up and leaves. At this point, he wakes up and realizes he has already had this dream, like all the other internees.

The night ends at the time of aufstehen (getting up), which very few await while sleeping. At this point, the bunk is made, shoes are slipped on, and the sores on the feet reopen, starting a new day.

Every day they look at the sky hoping that winter is over, so they will have one less enemy. One morning they notice everything around is green, for the first time they see themselves in daylight: the first enemy has passed, now they are just hungry; some think back to when they ate at home with friends, Primo thinks of the plate of pasta he had left over before coming to the camp and regrets not finishing it.

The real surprise of the day is a fifty-liter pot of soup they must divide among fifteen: for the first time, they go to sleep, in a sense, full.

In the camp, there are two categories of men: the saved and the drowned. In the category of the drowned are all those who, being small, old, sick, or in any way unable to work, are eliminated.

Chemical Commando 98 is founded, the Germans conduct tests to decide who should be part of it, Primo faces no problems when called because he has a degree in chemistry.

Bombings begin; the Germans, seeing them as revenge by the slaves, become much crueler towards them, making them also work unnecessarily.

Winter has returned and everyone suffers because, having been in the camp last winter, they know what it means. However, winter also means selection, and everyone prepares by having others check all parts of their body, but no one has the courage to condemn someone. On the day of selection, work ends early because they have to go to the infirmary for a check-up: they are all locked in the barrack to not escape the verdict and not see who goes to the gas chamber.

When the Blockaltester arrives, everyone must go naked into a very small room, where they exit one at a time, hand in their card, and re-enter through the dormitory door, during this time the Blockaltester decides who must live and who must die.

It is mid-winter when the kapo kommando announces the three chosen to work in the chemistry laboratory, and they are 169 509 Brackier, 175 633 Kandel, 174 571 Levi. The laboratory's temperature is 24°C, and there is the possibility of stealing without being discovered, so two problems are solved: winter and hunger. The three feel very fortunate to work in the laboratory because they must sit all the time, and they have a pencil and a sheet to take notes.

In the laboratory, there are also three women; they feel very embarrassed because they haven't seen a woman for months, knowing they are smelly and dirty with ruined bodies.

The Russians are about to arrive, so all the healthy must evacuate the camp with a march of about 20 km. Primo is still in Ka-Be, cannot leave, and when everyone departs on January 18, 1945, for him begins ten days out of the world and time.

In the camp, only a few SS remain on guard; around eleven at night, the bombings begin, and the camp is completely destroyed. Only the Ka-Be with the sick inside remains.

They roam the camp and find a stove, potatoes, and other things with which they can survive.

Ten days pass, and finally, the Russians arrive and rescue them.

Now Primo lives in his house in Turin.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Primo Levi:

Author and protagonist of the story, as he describes himself, he must not be very robust, and not very tall. He is very thoughtful in the camp but never gives up, always thinking that soon everything will end, although during the winter he had almost lost hope.

Alberto:

Primo describes him as his best friend, whom he finds after being in Ka-Be, when he is assigned to a new commando. He is not described much in physical details, but it is assumed he is a bit more robust than him, because sometimes he helped him with the heavier sacks.

There are no other important characters, as they are all described in one chapter but then not revisited.

MAIN THEMES

The most relevant theme in this story is the extermination of the Jews and their physical and mental condition in the Auschwitz camp.

This theme is also expressed in the poem "If This Is a Man," which I have reported and which Primo Levi himself wrote. In the first part of this poem, Primo Levi tells all those who now live quietly to meditate on what happened, and describes in a few words the condition of men and women in the camp. In the second part, he sends a message to everyone, almost obliging them not to forget everything that happened, and this is also why he wrote this book. Another reason the book was written is the need that arises in a man who has been in a camp to make others part of what happened to him.

Physically a man in the camp is little more than a rag, and is treated as such. For the Germans, the prisoners were even after anything else, so much so that they were treated in a way that cannot be considered human. In the prisoners, after these treatments, it is very difficult to find something human, indeed the title of the book, "If This Is a Man," means just that. I too, after reading this book, share this opinion, because I cannot conceive how some could have survived all this without committing suicide.

These survivors then, like Primo Levi, are very marked by what happened to them, and like him, they remember perfectly everything.

The mind of a man in the camp is gradually modified by all the humiliations endured, by the lack of a loved one to lean on in moments of sadness or pain, by the lack of relationships with a woman for many months or years. Because of this change that occurs in a man's mind, his behaviors and expressions are no longer as we can imagine, but are as they can only be in a camp. The Germans conceived these camps also with the purpose of ruining the dignity and the being of a person before eliminating them.

Prisoners washed, shaved, even though it was useless, precisely to try to not change, and therefore to remain men.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS

I think the book had on me the effect that Primo Levi, by writing it, wanted to convey, because everything that is described deeply affected me, and I hope that such a thing never happens again. Even putting all possible effort into reading it, one will never be able to fully understand how they felt in that place, because in my opinion, it was like another world, completely different from the normal world where we live, much more atrocious, a world where you have a number printed on your arm for a name.

I think that the Germans, despite trying all possible hate for other populations, did not fully realize the condition in which the prisoners were, because otherwise, they would not have been men.

AUTHOR'S STYLE

The author, Primo Levi, wrote the book shortly after his liberation due to the urgency to tell, to make others aware of the horror endured, a terrifying, inevitable, and unstoppable horror. The book was written with the purpose of inner liberation, so the chapters do not follow a logical succession, but have an order of urgency. Every fact recounted is, of course, really happened.