Survival In Auschwitz

Rating:
Summary: Surviving a Real Nightmare
Review: "We had learnt of our destination with relief. Auschwitz: a name without significance for us at the time, but it at least implied some place on this earth"

Primo Levi's memoir, Survival in Auschwitz, is a moving account of one young man's struggle for survival in the notorious Polish concentration camp. Levi employs a unique narrative structure, emphasizing the power of words both thematically and stylistically. Levi is only twenty-five when he enters the camp, and his storytelling does much to reveal the devastating impact that concentration camps had on the psyche and on the spirit. Levi confronts the harsh reality of what life in Auschwitz means, and how different it is from any form of civilization. In clear contrast to the camp's dehumanizing effects on its victims, Levi uses language to stir the hearts of his readers. In a kind of dictionary of suffering, he gives the reader the terms of his old existence: Buna, where young men labor in a factory that will never produce synthetic rubber; Ka-Be, the infirmary where Levi is granted a few weeks' rest to recover from a foot injury, and Selekcja, the Polish word for "selection," that seals the fate of those marked for the crematorium. Many readers wishing to learn more about the Holocaust or concentration camps will find Levi's work powerful and enriching. Perhaps more importantly, these readers will continue to ask Levi's questions in today's society.

Rating:
Summary: Surviving a Real Nightmare
Review: "We had learnt of our destination with relief. Auschwitz: a name without significance for us at the time, but it at least implied some place on this earth"

Primo Levi's memoir, Survival in Auschwitz, is a moving account of one young man's struggle for survival in the notorious Polish concentration camp. Levi employs a unique narrative structure, emphasizing the power of words both thematically and stylistically. Levi is only twenty-five when he enters the camp, and his storytelling does much to reveal the devastating impact that concentration camps had on the psyche and on the spirit. Levi confronts the harsh reality of what life in Auschwitz means, and how different it is from any form of civilization. In clear contrast to the camp's dehumanizing effects on its victims, Levi uses language to stir the hearts of his readers. In a kind of dictionary of suffering, he gives the reader the terms of his old existence: Buna, where young men labor in a factory that will never produce synthetic rubber; Ka-Be, the infirmary where Levi is granted a few weeks' rest to recover from a foot injury, and Selekcja, the Polish word for "selection," that seals the fate of those marked for the crematorium. Many readers wishing to learn more about the Holocaust or concentration camps will find Levi's work powerful and enriching. Perhaps more importantly, these readers will continue to ask Levi's questions in today's society.

Rating:
Summary: Facing the truth
Review: (This review was written under the original title of the book: 'If This is a Man' followed by 'The Truce')
Reading this book filled me with sorrow and horror. I was prepared for the horror but did not expect the crawling sadness of this impassive tale of improbable survival, of days and months of fear, hunger and torment that I devoured in astonishement but digested with a lot more difficulty. That there were millions of human beings that went through such systematic torture and annihilation and that this whole torment was inflicted by man. That others (all of us) should quickly declare it an aberration and fail to relate to it. Primo Levi talks of a nightmare common among concentration camp prisoners: they are telling their story to people from home, people outside the camps and no one is listening. Reading Levi's tale of survival and lengthy repatriation, we come to understand the need for telling this extraordinaty experience. It is said that those survivors who chose not to talk were those who could not reconcile the shame and misery of the camp experience with their condition as human beings. They tried in vain to suppress a memory they could not assimilate. Others, like Levi, maitained the belief in his humanity as well as in that of every other man. Fot this, he claims, the extermination camp experience touches us all. 'If This Is a Man' made me realize once and for all that it is extemely important that we know, that we relate to what happened. For every victim of insane hatred and violence and for humanity's sake.

Rating:
Summary: dispassionate but moving account of the durability of life
Review:

It would be easy to bluntly horrify the reader in a book about life in a death camp, but Levi is not content to appeal to the emotions. He has an intellectual fascination with details, and the psychology of genocide. By a dispassionate and careful treatment of the very difficult material, he manages to write a compelling book about a terrible subject. And the emotional effect does not suffer from this approach--because Levi does not manipulate them, the reader's feelings are deeper and more lasting.

In one chapter, Levi describes how many of the prisoners, after fourteen hours of manual labor, would assemble in one corner of the camp in a market. They would trade rations and stolen goods. Levi describes how the market followed classical economic laws. Whenever I remember this I am freshly amazed at the resilience of life, and the ability of people to live and think and work in the most adverse conditions. It is remarkable that I finished a book about the Holocaust with a better opinion of mankind than I started with; I think the fact that the book affected me this way is the best recommendation

Rating:
Summary: Harrowing...
Review: An incredible book... Levi's straightforward and almost unemotional tone often disguises the horror of what he is describing. I'd recommend reading it at least twice... I've read it three times now and each time I get something more. Few of us can truly understand the circumstances Levi lived through, but it is important to try.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading on human nature
Review: As Primo Levi puts in his foreward, it goes without saying that what is written in true, not made up. And reminding ourselves of that at the end of each chapter is truly necessary, as in some parts it comes straight out of an end-of-the-world movie.

For all of we adults who will never again step into a classroom to be fed information the government/state thinks is important for us to know, we are spared a lot of propaganda, but we are also given the opportunity to forget some of the founding currents of our day and to avoid difficult-to-face issues. The holocaust as a horrorful example of genocide is one of them that can fade away, only to be brought back up occasionally, usually in the form of oscar-winning movies.

This book deserves an award similar to such a major prize because it is truly accessible to we who have no CLUE of what even a state of war feels like, much less a collective transformation into the macabre and cruel. And as those who remember that era grow fewer, their written words such as this book grow more important to help us never forget.

I had a chance to go to Dachau and visit a concentration camp similar to the one described in the book. Dachau, in fact, was a camp where protocol would be established and then implemented across all the other camps. During my visit I took a long tour with a historian who documented as completely as possible in our short-ish time what it was like to live in a concentration camp. It is beyond words. The details are unlike anything that I was told in high school, and yet they are critical, just critical to understand the nature of these camps. This book is full of these details, about the shoes, the sickness, the roll calls, the food regimen, the complex labryinth of rules that are valued over life, the overlords of prisioners over prisoners, and adds to it a layer of human calculation that is true survival instinct.

In part of the book, Levi recounts a dream he had, where no one who had been outside the camps would listen to his horrors. As he said it was a common dream for many, it feels to me that it is at least in part because what he has to say is so hard to listen to. But listening to it for me is so critical so as to understand the fragile base upon which our society is based, to mourn the past and current racial divisions that persist the world over, to put our own lives and problems into perspective and perhaps even maybe to take stock of our own lives and how we live them as regards the tolerance and acceptance we extend to others.

If you up to reading a book on the experience of living in a concentration camp, you would do well to choose this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Important Work
Review: Because this is one of the most important books of the 20th Century, it grieves me that the publisher couldn't even bother to check for spelling and typographical errors (e.g., recieve, openely). It's also too bad that the title had to be changed from IF THIS IS A MAN, because the original title better sums up the subject. The writer was a great man! I feel privileged to read his account of how men were willfully denuded by their captors of everything that makes one human. No one may fairly judge those who did whatever it took, merely to be able to go on breathing. I am thankful for Levi's courage in writing this book; all we have to hold on to is the truth.

Rating:
Summary: the best of the Holocaust narratives
Review: Elie Wiesel is usually the writer that comes to mind when anyone thinks of Holocaust literature, but that's a shame considering that Levi's books are all literary achievements of the highest order. I defy anyone to read any of Levi's books and not be moved by both the events described and the writing - this is one of the most moving descriptions of Levi's and worth buying and remembering. For my money, Levi is the greatest Holocaust writer of this century -- if you haven't savored his books, you should acquire and read them as soon as you can.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended read
Review: Following the Auschwitz anniversary, I decided to read a lot more about the holocaust than I knew. Survival in Auschwitz by primo Levi was one of the books I read and loved. I consider it to be one of the most well-written, touching and compelling memoirs about the holocaust. Promo Levi is an excellent writer, with deep, lucid and compelling prose and insightful writing style. This book is one of the most influential books of my life.

After reading this book, I can't imagine any person not honestly feeling for humanity, and becoming compassionate no matter what the circumstance is. This well-depicted book is a recommendation for those interested in the plight of mankind in wars and other man-made and natural disasters. Read it and you will rave and pass it on to your friends.

This is a well recommended Holocaust book along with DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE,PERIODIC TABLE, NIGHT

Rating:
Summary: A Touching Account in an Interesting Style
Review: Holocaust literature generally can't help but be touching just because of the very subject matter. No matter how many times this tale has been told, it is still devastating and morbidly fascinating and heartbreaking. This account is all three, but is a little different than most in that is a very scientific account of Levi's times at Auchwitz. Definitely the least abstract of his many wonderful works on the subject. His purpose in taking this relatively detached voice in telling the story is powerfully stated in the author's preface and the poem in the beginning of the book. Levi gives us the background we need so that we can work through the evidence and be the judges of this atrocity. A devastating task, but definitely worth the effort.