Survival In Auschwitz

542 Words2 Pages

“Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself.” This short quote is taken from Primo Levi’s “Survival in Auschwitz”. It depicts a true story of Primo Levi during the Holocaust, who was relocated to an extermination camp after beginning a great life after college. Primo was captured with a resistant group from Italy. He used his college education and degree in chemistry to stay alive.
The above quote brings a similar quote to mind. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul”. That quote is taken from the front wall of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Olivia, Minnesota. It gives an idea about our savior Jesus Christ’s life. He spent his whole life teaching the word of God and humanity to all people of any race or religion. These two, Primo Levi and Jesus Christ, lived similar lives.
Primo lived growing up as a Jewish citizen during the bad economic times of Europe. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party blamed this economic tragedy on the Jewish society. Primo tried to fight against this, but like most Jews was found guilty and taken to conservation camps. Here he was giving the chance of what he learned in life...

Show More
Related

  • The Dangers of Fear

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.

    Read More

  • Berlin Diaries Vs.Survival In Auschwitz

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two books Berlin Diaries by Marie Vassiltchikov and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi both chronicle World War II from two different perspectives. They are both personal accounts from each author’s actual experiences. The two books have different formats, points, facts, and actualities. For example, Berlin Diaries is in actual diary format, and Survival in Auschwitz is in story format. I found that Berlin Diaries was harder to read because of the format, where Survival in Auschwitz was easier to follow. Also both stories were taken from two very different points of view. Marie Vassiltchikov was a Russian aristocrat that fled Russia and was seeking refuge in Germany. Primo Levi was an Italian Jew who was captured by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp. Vassiltchikov was free, she lived a restricted life, but she still had her freedom. Levi was a prisoner; he lived a captive slave life and had no liberties or freedoms. This difference seems to be the most consequential. They led such different lives. Levi was the absolute bane of the Nazi existence, as they were to him. In contrast, Vassiltchikov actually worked for the Nazis; granted to have the freedom that she did, that’s where she had to work. But still, Vassiltchikov had freedom, how much more different could one get from being a Jewish prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, as Levi was. There are so many points to this major

    Read More

  • Survival inThe autobiography, Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    This novel is about the horrific events that took place towards Levi and other captive jewish members over a ten month period at Ka-Be in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Throughout the autobiography, Levi states graphic accounts on everything that happen to him. In the beginning, Levi was captured by the Fascist Militia on December 13, 1943, at the age of 24. Shortly after being captured, Levi starts to endure all the hardships of being a jewish prisoner at a nazi concentration camp. He writes about the poor living conditions, the painful, back breaking work he was forced to do, and the people he encounters. As he becomes wiser to the system, Levi realizes intelligence is the key to his freedom. Levi says he was "too civilized" and "thinks too much," (103) to work in the fields and will eventually end in selections. Because Levi was intellectual, he thought before he acted as oppose to acting before he thinks like most of the other prisoners he was with. For this reason, he got a specialty job working in a laboratory as oppose to working on the fields. It is for his brilliance and his...

    Read More

  • Survival In Auschwitz By Levi Primo Summary

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Levi learns this from a man named Lorenzo he says that Lorenzo’s "humanity was pure and uncontaminated" and that because of him he managed not to forget that [he himself] was a man" (survival in Auschwitz by Levi primo) . Lorenzo was also an Italian man but a civilian worker and not a prisoner. Although Lorenzo could get punished for helping Levi. Lorenzo helps Levi without ever asking anything in return. Lorenzo risks his own life to provide Levi with extra soup, he teaches him about compassion and kindness. Lorenzo gives him a valuable lesson in cleanliness, which was a way to keep one's standard of civilization. And not buying into self dehumanization which the Nazis used to train the jews into losing their self-worth and

    Read More

  • Surviving World War II and the Concentration Camps

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    World War II (WWII) began September 3, 1939 and Concentration camps began in 1933 (Concentration camps.) Concentration camps are camps, mostly Jews and they are made to work and very little food is given to them, also the Jews live in sheds with other people of the same gender (Concentration Camps.) Auschwitz opened in 1940 it was the only largest Nazi concentration camps, death camps in Southern Poland (History Staff.) Also, in the article was about Josef Mengele did medical experiments (History Staff.) In the book Auschwitz by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was about a doctor who did “Scientific Research” on the prisoners and was very few of the workers who were able to get out of the gas chambers and survived the Holocaust (Nyiszli.) For example Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was one few that was an assistant to Dr. Josef Mengele (Nyiszli.) Surviving a concentration camp was difficult for people and only one option was to stay alive and fight.

    Read More

  • Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...lyzes man’s internal and external issues which conveys mankind’s human condition. Survival in Auschwitz conclusively depicts how mankind reacts to the deepest and most torturous oppression within our past. He proves undoubtedly that the majority of man will fall to corruption or fail completely and give up hope altogether in the struggle for survival. His rather alluring account on how to truly survive in the camp and “documentation...of certain aspects of the human mind” relay the process of their dehumanization (Survival 9). Levi ultimately deems man’s reaction to oppression and the backlash of their means.

    Read More

  • Auschwitz: Overview of the Concentration Camp

    2285 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Holocaust was one of the most horrifying crimes against humanity. "Hitler, in an attempt to establish the pure Aryan race, decided that Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma (Gypsies), and homosexuals amongst others were to be eliminated from the German population. One of his main methods of exterminating these “undesirables” was through the use of concentration and death camps. In January of 1941, Adolf Hitler and his top officials decided to make their “final solution” a reality. Their goal was to eliminate the Jews and the “impure” from the entire German population. Auschwitz was not only the largest concentration camp that carried out Hitler's “final solution,” but it was also the most extensive. It was comprised of three separate camps that encompassed approximately 25 square miles. Although millions of people came to Auschwitz, it is doubted that more than 120,000-150,000 ever lived there at any one time. (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust)

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between The Bombing Of The Holocaust And The Holocaust

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Behind the Barbed Wire: Auschwitz

    1563 Words  | 4 Pages

    The train comes squealing to a stop at the station. Hundreds of Jews with all the belongings that they can fit into a suitcase with them exit a tightly packed train car. Immediately they are sorted into two groups. One heads into the heart of the camp to start a life of hard labor. The other goes to ‘disinfecting’. They are happy, cheerful, and suspect nothing as they approach the ‘showers’ for disinfecting. After they have rid themselves of their clothes, jewelry, and belongings, they enter the showers and are immediately locked in. They begin to feel suspicious and afraid, but by now, it is far too late for them to do anything. As the small pellets rain down from the roof, the terror builds to an unspeakable level. They try anything they can think of to get out. Screaming, clawing, praying, or pounding, anything goes. Slowly they begin to die. After about twenty minutes, it is all over. Sadly, this was a daily event at many concentration camps during the Holocaust. At Auschwitz, an occurrence such as this happened multiple times every day. Auschwitz was a designated death factory, killing thousands every day. Although there were many concentration camps during the Holocaust, the most notorious camp was Auschwitz.

    Read More

  • What Really Happened in Auschwitz?

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    Other than prisoners being executed, what really happened in Auschwitz? Auschwitz was one of the most famous concentration camps in WWII. Upon arrival the Jews and many others were loaded on to “the ramp” and the selection process began. The ones who looked healthy enough were put in a line to the right. Those who appeared unworthy were put in a line to the left and marched to immediate death. Women and children were stripped of clothing, hair and tattooed. All Jews lost their names and were called by the serial number tattooed on them upon arrival. It is said that some women were put into prostitution. By the end of WWII, Auschwitz became known as the symbol of death, due to about 1.1 million people dying from hard labor, experimentation, starvation, diseases, and execution.

    Read More

  • An Essay On Auschwitz Concentration Camp

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Auschwitz Concentration Camp was a camp used to hold Jews during the Holocaust; the Auschwitz Camp was the largest camp of its time. Auschwitz had three main complexes and 36 sub-camps. The three main camps were Auschwitz 1-Stamlagger, created in 1940, built for Polish Political Prisoners, the second camp was named Auschwitz 2-Birkenau, created in 1941, there was more than a hundred thousand prisoners and the building was used for Mass Killing center, it had Crematoria and Gas Chambers. They killed over 2,000 Jews a day in Auschwitz. The third camp was called Auschwitz III-Monowitz, created in 1944, used for supplied forced labor.

    Read More

  • Auschwitz Cruelty

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cruel. Hellish. Inhumane. These three words describe life in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler’s "Final Solution" was to exterminate the Jews; among other groups including the Gypsies, mentally ill or disabled, and homosexuals. This “solution” would take place in hundreds of secret concentration camps throughout all of Europe. Auschwitz is one example of Nazi cruelty forced on people they viewed as inferior. The Nazi regime rose to power on January 30, 1933, making Adolf Hitler chancellor. He quickly turned his presidential rule into a dictatorship. Then he set upon his goal of making the perfect race by using widespread propaganda to spread the regime's ideals and goals. They made fast work to get there plan under way and start, as they called it, “The Finial Solution.”

    Read More

  • History Of Auschwitz Concentration Camps

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Holocaust many concentration camps were built by the Nazis for the killing and suffering of Jews. As Hitler wanted all Jews to perish off the Earth he wanted theses concentration camps were Jews can be brought in and could be killed one by one. These Jews were killed many ways inside these concentration camps and nobody even knew about it. Nobody outside knew about because it was kept a huge secret. These concentration camps were the end to on Jews’ journey in life.

    Read More

  • Estrangement In Esstranged Labor

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    Primo Levi’s tales of his labors in “Survival in Auschwitz” connected Marx’s ideas with work under extreme and unique circumstances. In the Lager, workers suffered extreme working conditions, were deskilled in labor, became one with the masses, and were dehumanized. Through Marx’s four estrangements (estrangement of man from the product of his labor, estrangement of man from the act of labor, estrangement of man from humanity, and the estrangement of man from man), it became evident the ways in which the Holocaust is a product of a heightened version of capitalist modernity.

    Read More

  • Similarities And Differences Between Elie Wiesel And Primo Levi

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about Survival In Auschwitz

Open Document