First of all I’d like to say that I thought this book was phenomenally written. I really enjoyed this book which came off as a surprise to me due to the fact that I don’t read very often or even slightly enjoy doing so. However, right from the beginning not only did the book catch my attention but it maintained it throughout the entire thing. Author Primo Levi decided to make the point of view for his book through his eyes because it not only gives the book a very realistic and heartfelt feel but it’s also what he personally experienced. However, there are a few times in which Levi thinks back at what happens and uses past tense. I believe that the books purpose was for it to inform, as he’s trying to inform by telling a story about his experiences during the holocaust, as well as the holocaust as a whole. In my opinion, Levi not only accomplishes his goal but does it incredibly well. The story starts out very abruptly with the author Primo Levi telling us that his life was changed forever on December 13th, 1943 when he was just twenty-four years old. (Chapter 1 Page 1) He tells us that his plan of hiding in the woods is ruined, as he’s been captured by Italian Fascist Forces with other Jewish …show more content…
Later on in the story we see the Nazis leave their camp and take all the healthy prisoners with them due to the Soviet Forces closing in. Primo Levi is left behind and befriends the two Frenchmen he had met at Ka-Be named Charles and Arthur. The three share a hut together due to them all having Scarlet Fever. The three eventually decide to share the food that they find with everyone else. Primo Levi survives the entire length of his time at Auschwitz but now however, Primo Levi must how to learn to feel and live like a human being again, after living in a system whose entire purpose was to destroy him and the other
The tone and mood of this story is pretty dark when it comes to the main event in the assembly when Georg’s dad and other innocent people were killed. I personally think the main purpose of this book is to teach the reader how not only Jews were affected horribly during this time but many other innocent people and also to show the things these people would of done to be safe, for example, in the book Georg had to stay still in a suit case for a whole night so he could get on a train that is leaving the country, during that time he was not being allowed to move he would be in pain but he cannot make a sound either since he could get caught so he just had to me cramped in a suit case for hours in pain unable to speak. I personally feel like this part truly in depth showed what people went through just to be
Primo Levi, an Italian Jew, was captured on December 13, 1943 by the Facist Militia during World War II. He was taken by train from Italy to Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps in all of Europe. While he was imprisoned, he was put through many terrible ordeals and faced death a number of times. Through his intense struggles, he depicted each moment with procission so that he could eventually combine them into a memoir. By using a rather mournful tone, he created his memoir in order to inform his audience of his heart-wrenching story and encourages them to participate in the lives of the facist prisoners before their liberation.
Time: How does the way the writer moves between the past and present and future affect the structure of the book? How might this technique inform my approach?
I also respond to the concept of home in Survival In Auschwitz by comparing it to my own idea and what home means to me – a place of stability and reflection that remains a constant in my changing life. In Levi's description of his journey to Auschwitz, home gradually becomes a symbol of the past. As a young Jewish chemist, participating in the anti fascist movement, Levi was arrested in Italy and eventually taken to the concentration camp, Auschwitz. As he is about to board the train to the camp, Levi claims “the happy memories of our homes, still so near in time and space [were] as painful as thrusting a sword” (Levi 10). At this point in Levis experience, home seems to be a place of safety and certainty from which he was taken and he now feels pain thinking of it because he is scared for what his future holds.
past. The three main characters of the novel, all of whom to some extent try to
In the “American Holocaust” by David Stannard, Stannard points out how the Spaniards, British, and Americans were treating the indigenous people differently. In chapter 1 of the “American Holocaust,” Stannard talks about how the Europeans main goal was to find and acquire gold. When the Europeans began to arrive in America they began to discover a land that contained a variety of gold. Once they discovered that there was gold they began to establish and did not see the indigenous people as part of the land. Indigenous people were required to work in forced labor and take care of the land however they were not part of the land and did not have their own property, towns and villages. In the first chapter of the American Holocaust Stannard
...s advised early on that incurable illness lead to one’s downfall (Levi). When Levi contracts scarlet fever, he knows what is to come of him. Either he will die from the disease or will be put to death due to his inability to work (Levi). Luckily, the Soviet army pushes its forces closer and closer to the camp, leaving the chances of liberation possible (Levi). The Nazis lead an evacuation of the entire camp, except for those in the Ka-Be (Levi). Some believe that staying behind will only lead to their execution and decide to participate in the evacuation. Nonetheless, the Soviets arrived at Auschwitz several days later to liberate the camp (Levi).
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Classic House, 2008. Print.
Primo Levi’s narrative of the Holocaust explains the true struggle and chance for survival for the Jews in camps, specifically Auschwitz. Separately, Levi describes the true chance people had for survival in that they could have been selected to or in some cases boarded alone either the train car going to work or the train car going straight to the gas chambers. This is similar to the bombing of Hiroshima where some people could have been in the city, such as Saeki visiting her mother in which she could have died, or Kuribayashi being lucky enough in the distance away from the city. As Levi worked in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, he describes the struggle and dehumanization Jews had to go through to survive including tattooed numbers on their arms which labelled them, prisoners stealing soup or shoes to keep going. The major difference between the Hiroshima bombing and the Holocaust was the torture before an end versus an end before a torture. The Holocaust was either a two-minute torture in a gas
FDR and the Holocaust by Verne W. Newton provides a basis for scholarly discourse for the Hyde Park Conference of 1993. The book includes essays, articles, and chapters from different scholars specializing in the Holocaust and Roosevelt in which they examine FDR’s response to the Holocaust. The first chapter of the book is a summary of the participants’ remarks of the “Policies and Responses of the American Government towards the Holocaust,” which was prepared by rapporteur J. Garry Clifford. The objective of the conference was to determine through discussion whether or not the controversy over the Roosevelt administration’s response to the Holocaust was correct. Following this chapter, the first section of the book is filled with essays, articles, and chapters submitted by participants at the conference. The second section of the book includes papers by historians who were not participants at the conference, but whose contributions are relevant to the issues discussed. The articles written by the scholars throughout the book look at the policies between 1933 and 1942, addressing the critiques of FDR and his failure to stop the genocide of the Jewish community in Germany. The overall book not only looks at the rescue efforts during the war and the possibilities for future research and analysis, but also supplies a definitive resource for a pivotal time in United States history.
...te asking the Party to pay attention to the violence of the camp in Kemi. They stated that they had once been very healthy until they were sent to the camp, and since then they have been in very poor health. This plead to the Party, of innocent people having to work under violence and terror, shows how awful the concentration camps treated anyone (Doc. 7).
This book is very educating about the history of the concentration camps and Holocaust. “…The spectators observed these emaciated creatures ready to kill for a crust of bread...the old man was crying, ‘Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me…you’re killing your father…I have bread…for you too…for you too’ He collapsed…there were two dead bodies next to (Elie), the father and the son.” (Page 101 of Night) Concentration camps were terrible. The prisoners/Jews were so underfed that they were willing to kill their own family members for a slice of bread. The Jews would go to extremes in order to get a bit more food to line their stomachs. Concentration camps, Gestapo, and SS transform the prisoners’ morals and their lives. “My father suddenly had a colic attack. He got up and asked politely, in German, ‘Excuse me…could you tell me where the toilets are located?’ (Night page 39) …Then, he slapped my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours.” This also shows the brutality of the German Kapos and the Nazi Staff. This is very educational for the world about the brutality and unpleasantness of the concentration camps. Educating people about the holocaus...
...urvivors crawling towards me, clawing at my soul. The guilt of the world had been literally placed on my shoulders as I closed the book and reflected on the morbid events I had just read. As the sun set that night, I found no joy in its vastness and splendor, for I was still blinded by the sins of those before me. The sound of my tears crashing to the icy floor sang me to sleep. Just kidding. But seriously, here’s the rest. Upon reading of the narrators’ brief excerpt of his experience, I was overcome with empathy for both the victims and persecutors. The everlasting effect of the holocaust is not only among those who lost families÷, friends,
the novel is in fact based upon the idea that the past and the present
German citizens had to endure a challenging lifestyle, presented by Adolf Hitler, of fascism, the holocaust, Jewish laws and propaganda during World War II. From 1939-1942, Nazi Germany affected the lives of Jews, Gypsies, Slavic people, and other groups living in Germany by getting rid of the undesirables, known as the Holocaust. Only Germans with the look of blond hair and blue eyes were even considered to live, only if he or she had no defects or disabilities, anyone else was sent to and killed in concentration camps. The Book Thief takes place in a town near Munich, Germany during this time of the holocaust. The novel focuses on the lives of the people and how they cope and deal with the immediate effects of WWII. It emphasizes the danger of hiding a Jew in a family’s basement, and how they are constantly paranoid of being caught.