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Chapter 2, On the Bottom
Summary
The trucks arrive at a gate with the inscription “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which Levi translates as “work gives freedom.” The prisoners haven’t had a drink of water in four days. The Germans herd them into a large empty room with a water faucet labeled as unsafe to drink. An SS man through an interpreter instructs them to strip naked and sort their clothing into piles, amassing all the shoes in a corner of the room where they are swept away into a heap. Next, prison barbers shear their hair and beards so they are all bald and clean-shaven. Afterward, they are ushered naked into a shower room where two inches of standing water prevent their sitting.
As they stand naked and cold, a Hungarian doctor explains their situation to them. They are in the Monowitz labor camp in a German-controlled part of Poland. The ten thousand prisoners work to produce a type of rubber called Buna, which is also the name of their camp. His descriptions of a camp reward system, Sunday concerts, and football matches leave Levi even more incredulous than the bizarre horrors they have already endured. At dawn, the showers come on for five minutes. Shouting prisoners drive them into a freezing room where other prisoners throw clothes and shoes at them. They run a hundred yards naked across the courtyard in the cold to a room where they can finally get dressed.
The Germans next tattoo numbers on their forearms. The numbering reflects a chronology of arrival, with the earliest internees bearing the lowest numbers and the most recent arrivals bearing the highest numbers. Levi adds the term Häftling, or prisoner, to his limited German vocabulary. The new internees are taken to the main square for the end-of-workday ritual when the prison labor returns from the work sites marching in time to a band playing a medley of popular and classical German pieces. A headcount ensues, overseen by a group of SS men in full battle dress. Afterward, the prisoners go their separate ways. As Levi mingles with the crowd, a young Polish Jew, Schlome, welcomes him in German, gives Levi a hug, and asks about Levi’s family. When Levi asks Schlome how to slake his raging thirst, Schlome warns him not to drink the water, mimicking the bloating that will result.
Levi elaborately describes the layout of the complex and the purposes of the sixty huts called “blocks.” The living quarters cram two men into each bunk. The hierarchy among the prisoners can be seen in the patches sewn on their jackets next to their ID number. The criminals wear a green triangle, the political prisoners wear red triangles, and the Jews wear the Jewish star of David. The SS puts the German criminals in charge of all the other Häftlings and the rules of survival require careful observance of the numerous prohibitions. All but two Sundays a month they work at the Buna rubber factory, and on those two days they maintain their living quarters. Levi takes stock of his situation and assesses that he has hit rock bottom.
Analysis
The narrator provides a detailed description of the inner workings of the Monowitz/Buna labor camp, one part of the larger Auschwitz complex. The grinding down of the prisoners from individuals to cogs in the system shows the methodical ruthlessness of the German Reich. Levi documents each new indignity with attention to its effect on his spirit. He works out his perceptions within his sane and humanitarian worldview, tingeing his observations of the Teutonic zeitgeist with dark humor.
Levi first notes the phrase “Arbeit Macht Frei” over the entrance to the camp. In hindsight, Levi comments how it haunted him in his dreams, his subconscious interpreting the slogan’s “freedom” as that of death. In describing their initial reception room as a living hell, Levi judges their circumstances comparable to the damned who have no hope of reprieve. Time seems to stop with their intense thirst, fatigue, and fear. The prisoners’ treatment becomes an indoctrination into their new reality. Their captors have given them nothing to drink for four days, the faucet sign forbidding them to drink seems a cruel joke. The sweeping away of all their belongings, including the all-important protection of shoes, represents the break with civilization as they know it. Naked from head to toe, shorn even of the warmth and protection of their hair, Levi sees how easily people could lose themselves. The tattooing of numbers finally strips away the last shred of identity: their names.
Levi never loses his observant edge. Even the tattooing comes under his microscope. He describes the meaning and implications of the numerical values of the registry system, which he subsequently worked out. By mentioning his own number—174517—he provides evidence for the Nazi policy of extermination of undesirables that the government took steps to hide from the world. Part of the disinformation was the day-to-day conduct of the camps such as the return of prisoners from the work sites. Levi’s reaction to the musical welcome as a peculiarly German twisted joke sheds light on the coldly calculated public relations campaign. In truth, the camps were intended to extinguish the lives of those whom the Nazis find offensive to German national purity. Schlome’s warning of the swelling that occurs from drinking the water indicates its contamination with toxins and microbes that cause severe gastroenteritis.
Schlome’s kind interest, his caution about the polluted water, his inquiry after the well-being of Levi’s family, and his hug stand out as mercies in the madness. Levi takes heart from these small moments of sanity and continues his quest to feel in control of his environment. He learns all the different functions of the sixty blocks. He absorbs the camp’s complex, unwritten system of rules, restrictions, and hierarchies of power. After two weeks, Levi’s person has already been deformed by poor nutrition, harsh working conditions, and inadequate clothing for the elements. His humanity has been eroded to self-interest. His definition of being “on the bottom” means starting from scratch after his world has been wiped out. Levi analyzes the role of optimism and pessimism in survival, seeing his state of mind as drifting between the two extremes.
