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Survival of auschwitz summary
Auschwitz case study essay
Survival of auschwitz summary
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On December 13, 1943, a twenty four year old, Jewish-Italian man’s life was changed forever. This Jewish-Italian man’s name is Primo Levi. Survival In Auschwitz, a book written by Primo Levi, portrays the horrific experience Levi lived through. Levi was captured by the Fascist Militia who forced Levi, along with hundreds of others, into wagons where they would be transported to a holding camp until they were taken to Auschwitz. There were 12 wagons that would take all of the 650 captured men to the camp of Auschwitz in Poland. Immediately upon their arrival to the camp, they were asked simple questions, such as “healthy or ill?’. Depending on the response they would give, they would be sent in two different directions. The book describes this …show more content…
“This is hell. A huge empty room: we are tired, standing on our feet, with a tap which drips while we cannot drink the water and we wait for something which will certainly be terrible, and nothing happens and nothing continues to happen”. (page 16). Not only are the people who were captured referred to as prisoners, but they are treated as if they are just a number. The Nazi’s treated Levi, along with thousands of others, in such an inhumane way. Levi goes into graphic detail throughout his book to allow his readers to almost visualize the camp as if they were there with him. With his quote above, he describes Auschwitz as to what he envisioned hell would be like. They have no water, very thin soup with maybe a scrap of potato if they are lucky. The Nazi’s took everything they have once loved away from them, and forced them into a whole new world. This camp is filled with “prisoners” wearing striped clothing and shoes that do not fit their feet, creating horrific blisters and causing infections on their feet, which only worsened when they would work. Their working days were long and brutal. In the winter time, a working day was 8am to 12 am and 12:30 pm to 4pm. In the summer, the working days were from 6:30 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 6 pm. “Such will be our life. Every day, according to the established rhythm, …show more content…
In order for our world to be properly informed on historical events, reading people’s personal experiences of events they lived through creates a whole new perspective and insight as to the actual occurrences that took place at that time in history. We can turn to history textbooks but the textbooks do not provide the true reality of what was experienced by the people living during that period. Because this time period is very traumatic and a horrific historical event, you can read facts that cover much of what happened and get an idea of the timeline of the Holocaust. However reading Levi’s own personal experiences help to make the reader feel what was actually occurring and not just a textbook of facts. In my Composition II class first semester, we were told to research archives, and shockingly enough, I did my archive paper over the Holocaust. I was able to perceive a whole new understanding of this historical event through reading stories of survivors. I read their journals written during the Holocaust and was able to illustrate the event more throughrougly through the graphic stories they would reveal in their writings. Through my secondary scholarly source, I came across a an article by Erin Denton which stated, “When Primo Levi fell to his death on April 11, 1987, many believed that he had finally yielded to the horrors of Auschwitz (Gambetta, 1999).” This section spoke to me with how
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.
Being confined in a concentration camp was beyond unpleasant. Mortality encumbered the prisons effortlessly. Every day was a struggle for food, survival, and sanity. Fear of being led into the gas chambers or lined up for shooting was a constant. Hard labor and inadequate amounts of rest and nutrition took a toll on prisoners. They also endured beatings from members of the SS, or they were forced to watch the killings of others. “I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time” (Night Quotes). Small, infrequent, rations of a broth like soup left bodies to perish which in return left no energy for labor. If one wasn’t killed by starvation or exhaustion they were murdered by fellow detainees. It was a survival of the fittest between the Jews. Death seemed to be inevitable, for there were emaciated corpses lying around and the smell...
In Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, to say that Auschwitz is an interesting read would be a gross understatement. Auschwitz is a historical document, a memoir but, most importantly an insider’s tale of the horrors that the captives of one of the most dreadful concentration camps in the history of mankind. Auschwitz, is about a Jewish doctors, Dr. Nyiszli, experience as an assistant for a Nazi, Dr. Mengele. Dr. Nyiszli arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp with his family unsure if he would survive the horrific camp. This memoir chronicles the Auschwitz experience, and the German retreat, ending a year later in Melk, Austria when the Germans surrendered their position there and Nyiszli obtained his freedom. The author describes in almost clinical detail and with alternating detachment and despair what transpired in the
(It should be noted that when describing hardships of the concentration camps, understatements will inevitably be made. Levi puts it well when he says, ?We say ?hunger?, we say ?tiredness?, ?fear?, ?pain?, we say ?winter? and they are different things. They are free words, created and used by free men who lived in comfort and suffering in their homes. If the Lagers had lasted longer a new, harsh language would have been born; only this language could express what it means to toil the whole day?? (Levi, 123).)
...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).
The Third Reich sought the removal of the Jews from Germany and eventually from the world. This removal came in two forms, first through emigration, then through extermination. In David Engel’s The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews, he rationalizes that the annihilation of the Jews by the Germans was a result of how Jews were viewed by the leaders of the Third Reich-- as pathogens that threatened to destroy all humanity. By eliminating the existence of the Jews, the Third Reich believed that it would save the entire world from mortal danger. Through documents such as Franzi Epsteins’s, “Inside Auschwitz-A Memoir,” in The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, one is able to see the struggle of the Jews from a first-hand account. Also, through Rudolf Hoess’s “Commandant of Auschwitz,” one is able to see the perspective of a commandant in Auschwitz. In Auschwitz: A History, Sybille Steinbacher effectively describes the concentration camp of Auschwitz, while Hermann Langbein’s People in Auschwitz reflects on Rudolf Hoess’s power and control in Auschwitz as commandant. Through these four texts, one is able to see the effects that the Third Reich’s Final Solution had on the Jews and the commandants.
Auschwitz Concentration Camp “Get off the train!”. Hounds barking loud and the sound of scared people, thousands of people. The “Now!”. I am a shaman. All sorts of officers yelling from every angle.
The Holocaust was a very impressionable period of time. It not only got media attention during that time, but movies, books, websites, and other forms of media still remember the Holocaust. In Richard Brietman’s article, “Lasting Effects of the Holocaust,” he reviews two books and one movie that were created to reflect the Holocaust (BREITMAN 11). He notes that the two books are very realistic and give historical facts and references to display the evils that were happening in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This shows that the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust have not been forgotten. Through historical writings and records, the harshness and evil that created the Holocaust will live through centuries, so that it may not be repeated again (BREITMAN 14).
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
During the 1930’s, The Holocaust physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred the lives of all mankind. Elie Wiesel is one of the few who has been able to turn his tragic experience as a concentration camp survivor into a memoir. Although Wiesel’s story isn’t like many others, his use of diction influences the tone and meaning of the story; Wiesel’s attitude in the book is calm, shocking, and thoughtful; capturing attention and spreading awareness to readers all around the world.
In Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli tells the story of his time in Auschwitz. Dr. Nyiszli is a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp located in Poland. His story provides the world with a description of horrors that had taken place in camp in 1944. Separated from his wife and daughter, Dr. Nyiszli volunteered to work under the supervision of the head doctor in the concentration camp, Josef Mengele. It was under Dr. Mengele’s supervision that Dr. Nyiszli was exposed to the extermination of innocent people and other atrocities committed by the SS. Struggling for his own survival, Dr. Nyiszli did anything possible to survive, including serving as a doctor’s assistant to a war criminal so that he could tell the world what happened at the Auschwitz concentration camp.This hope for survival and some luck allowed Dr. Nyiszli to write about his horrific time at Auschwitz.His experiences in Auschwitz will remain apart of history because of the insight he is able to provide.
Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps during World War Two, including Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. Many who were sent to the concentration camps did not survive but those who did tried to either forgot the horrific events that took place or went on to tell their personal experiences to the rest of the world. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi wrote memoirs on their time spent in the camps of Auschwitz; these memoirs are called ‘Night’ and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’. These memoirs contain similarities of what it was like for a Jew to be in a concentration camp but also portray differences in how each endured the daily atrocities of that around them. Similarities between Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi’s memoirs can be seen in the proceedings that
Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996) [first published as If This Is a Man], p. 86.
Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish Anti-fascist who was arrested in 1943, during the Second World War. The memoir, “If this is a Man”, written immediately after Levi’s release from the Auschwitz concentration camp, not only provides the readers with Levi’s personal testimony of his experience in Auschwitz, but also invites the readers to consider the implications of life in the concentration camp for our understanding of human identity. In Levi’s own words, the memoir was written to provide “documentation for a quiet study of certain aspects of the human mind”. The lack of emotive words and the use of distant tone in Levi’s first person narration enable the readers to visualize the cold, harsh reality in Auschwitz without taking away the historical credibility. Levi’s use of poetic and literary devices such as listing, repetition, and symbolism in the removal of one’s personal identification; the use of rhetorical questions and the inclusion of foreign languages in the denial of basic human rights; the use of bestial metaphors and choice of vocabulary which directly compares the prisoner of Auschwitz to animals; and the use of extended metaphor and symbolism in the character Null Achtzehn all reveal the concept of dehumanization that was acted upon Jews and other minorities.