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Primo Levi wrote the memoir of his incarceration at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, within a year of its liberation by the Soviet army. From his incarceration in December of 1943 to his liberation in January of 1945, Levi, a twenty-four-year-old Italian chemist, brought his skill for understanding the natural world to his adverse environment. Levi writes his memoir with a novelist’s eye to plot. He introduces the conflict, situates the climax in the middle, and works toward the dramatic denouement, the resolution of the horrific plan for world domination when the German war machine collapses.
The conflict in this memoir is deeply personal. Levi is caught in the cross-fire between civilization and barbarism. A hostile government snatches him, a young man in the prime of life, out of his professional career and imprisons him in conditions calculated to slowly kill him after extracting his life’s blood in hard labor. With escape not an option, he must learn to survive. Levi sets out to discover the paradigm for survival with the detachment of a scientist seeking the dynamic of a chemical reaction. He studies in minute detail the social and psychological dynamics of the Auschwitz labor camp. Levi dissects the Nazi dependence on slave labor to support their war effort and their fragile military-industrial complex. The success of slave labor depends on destroying a man’s sense of identity and agency, convincing him of his powerlessness, and removing all hope. Levi experiences the seizure of all his possessions, the brutal and recurring shaving of his hair and face, and the replacement of his name with a number.
The climax of the memoir occurs when Levi learns what it takes for a person to endure such conditions and treatment with their personality intact. Levi presents case studies of all kinds of men with different personalities and resources, who mobilize the gifts they have to resist losing themselves entirely. A Polish saddler barters metalworking and puts on impromptu musical performances to amuse the prisoners. A prominent industrialist falls back on his effete image to produce an air of authority and power. A small man garners followers by his extreme feats of strength, indefatigable work ethic, and intense personality. A young man practices the art of social seduction. Foremost among Levi’s subjects is himself as he evolves from a naïve unfocused young man into a powerful friend and communicator.
In the denouement of the memoir, the Nazi construct collapses as they flee before the Soviet forces. Auschwitz physically begins to disintegrate from bombardment and dismantling by the sick left behind. They recover the will to work together to fend for themselves. Levi proves that relationships form the bulwark against dehumanization. The writer Levi loves his characters, from the Kapo who beats him to galvanize his work effort to the civilian who feeds him. The many colorful people who populate Levi’s story each contribute in their unique ways to his salvation. Resnyk and Lorenzo directly support his physical survival, restore his faith in humanity, and give him something to live for. Jean teaches him the value of learning multiple languages. The Exchange Market infuses creativity into a death system as the inmates subvert the German’s planned privation.
Levi wrote his memoir for several reasons that resonate in the twenty-first century. As the book title suggests, his story shows the resources humans have to survive under extreme duress. Equipped with scientific training and a prodigious memory, Levi observed the behavior of all types of people in the Nazi slave labor system, including himself. Analyzing his data and drawing conclusions, Levi transmutes the tragic and sorrow-filled accounts into relatable stories. By doing so, he portrays the universality of the need for safe and comfortable lives.
To afford those benefits to all, Levi appeals to readers to internalize his account as an inoculation against xenophobia. He points out that regarding the stranger as an enemy springs from primal fears that Fascism and Nazism exploit. This sinister irrational conviction gives rise to toxic nationalism. By contrast, throughout the interactions with hundreds of strangers from many nationalities, Levi presents them as individuals, the antithesis of the Nazi indoctrination for their forced labor program. In the writing of the memoir, Levi finds his own liberation from the Nazi indoctrination into a slave mentality. Hitler’s Final Solution was one of the most egregious modern genocides but it has not been the only one. Levi’s book offers a glimpse into the change in man’s thinking that can happen close to home.
