Primo Levi, in his novel Survival in Auschwitz (2008), illustrates the atrocities inflicted upon the prisoners of the concentration camp by the Schutzstaffel, through dehumanization. Levi describes “the denial of humanness” constantly forced upon the prisoners through similes, metaphors, and imagery of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization (“Dehumanization”). He makes his readers aware of the cruel reality in the concentration camp in order to help them examine the psychological effects dehumanization has not only on those dehumanized, but also on those who dehumanize. He establishes an earnest and reflective tone with his audience yearning to grasp the reality of genocide.
In Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi laments that men become “hollow” when deprived of everything they “love [and] possess” (Survival 27). He uses several similes comparing the men to animals which proves how their brutal treatment by the Schutzstaffel has dehumanized them. As Levi describes how he and the other inmates laboriously work in the Chemical Kommando, he states “Elias climbs like a monkey” (Survival 96). By comparing the way Elias climbs to a monkey, on all fours, it is apparent that he has lost his humanness. His behavior is likened to that of an animal which depicts the psychological damage subjected upon the inmates. A fight occurs in the camp and Levi portrays Elias’ punch “as powerful and accurate as a catapult” (Survival 96). This form of mechanistic dehumanization construes Elias “as cold, rigid, [and] interchangeable” as a result of their oppression (“Dehumanization”). Furthermore, Levi frequently refers to the inmates as “beasts” throughout the novel, especially when subjected to brutal violence by the Schutzstaffel (Survival 117). ...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
Works Cited
"Dehumanization." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 May 2014. Web. 01 Jan. 2014.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Classic House, 2008. Print.
"Schutzstaffel." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Apr. 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
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.
In Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents and Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, both authors explore the source of human violence and aggression. Sigmund Freud’s book reacts to the state of Europe after World War I, while Primo Levi’s narrative is a first-hand account of his experiences during World War II. International and domestic tensions are high when both works are written; Sigmund Freud adopts a pessimistic tone throughout the work, while Primo Levi evolves from a despairing approach to a more optimistic view during his time at Auschwitz. To Sigmund Freud, savagery comes from the natural state of human beings, while Primo Levi infers violence is rooted in individual’s humanity being stripped away is.
In “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen,” the author Tadeusz Borowski describes the systematic dehumanization of the camps and attempts to convey the horror of that places. Borowski uses lively and imaginal language, such as “multicoloured wave of people” and “pours from the train,” to depict how these people get off the train when they arrive the camp. Borowski successfully illustrates dehumanization not of new arrivals but of those who have been the camp. He depictures the ugliness of human in the concentration camp during World War II. Therefore, it seems that for those labor gang working in the camp were apathetic to this situation, and they just upload these Jews from the cattle cars and send them to their death in the gas chamber.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault onHumanity. Trans. Stuart Woolf. New York: Collier-Macmillan, 1987.
And smart enough to realize he must use it in order to possibly save his life and improve his circumstances. His treatment in Auschwitz is the same as every other prisoner’s — inhumane. Levi realized pretty early that he would need to improve his conditions physically in order not to succumb to malnutrition, disease, etc. The best way to do that was to be of value to his captors. His education provided that avenue. They needed chemists in the laboratory, so Levi took the chemistry test to determine whether he could work there or not. As winter was approaching, the Kapo of the Chemical Kommando announced that three men had been chosen to work in the laboratory and Levi was one of them. He instantly received better treatment “as a specialized worker, [he] had the right to a new shirt and underpants and must be shaved every Wednesday,” which was something none of the other prisoners had access to (139). Being one of the skilled laborers “...[meant] a strong probability of not falling seriously ill, of not being frozen, of overcoming the selections,” which was a godsend for Levi (140). But despite this blessing, Levi knows that it was “...the gift of fortune, to be enjoyed as intensely as possible and at once; for there is no certainty about tomorrow,” (140). Staying grounded despite a glimmer of hope kept Levi in a good place in order to survive this hell on
The book, Survival in Auschwitz, was a very intense depiction of the events that occurred in the Nazi concentration camp called Auschwitz. Levi was captured, on December 13, 1943, at the age of twenty-four by the Fascist Militia, when he admitted to being an Italian citizen of Jewish race. Much of the first chapter is about the way that Levi was unaware of just how horrible the camps were actually going to be. He begins to experience these true horrors when he is taken aboard the train for the ride to Auschwitz. He is packed into a train car along with hundreds of other Jews who are deprived of food and water and left to freeze on the way to the death camp. It goes on to describe the daily events in the camp which was primarily using the Jews as a workforce that was basically slaves.
A crucial concept developed throughout Survival in Auschwitz and The Drowned and the Saved is the process of “the demolition of a man” through useless acts of violence. In order for the Nazis to control and murder without regard or guilt, they had to diminish men into subhumans. Those who entered the camps were stripped of their dignity and humanity, devoid of any personal identity. Men and women were reduced to numbers in a system that required absolute submission, which placed them in an environment where they had to struggle to survive and were pitted against their fellow prisoners. The purpose of the camps were not merely a place for physical extermination, but a mental one as well. Primo Levi exposes these small and large acts of deprivation and destruction within his two texts in order for readers to become aware of the affects such a system has on human beings, as well as the danger unleashed by a totalitarian system.
I. Survival in Auschwitz is the unique autobiographical account of how a young man endured the atrocities of a Nazi death camp and lived to tell the tale.
The Jewish prisoners were treated like animals to the point where they acted like animals. The prisoners of the camp were beaten and worked to death; they knew nothing else but this inhumane treatment inflicted upon them and Eliezer forgot to see himself as a person, “I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time” (Wiesel, 50).
Dehumanization Through Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night.
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
Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness and Primo Levi’s book of essays The Drowned and the Saved explore two instances of human oppression in the 20th century – European imperialism of Africa and the Nazi German oppression of Jews in the Holocaust. The former text supplies a fictional narrative of one man’s journey into the heart of the African Congo, where he witnesses the poor treatment of African natives by employees of a Belgian ivory trade firm. Levi, in his collection of essays, reflects on his own experience as a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp to derive some form of understanding of the exterminations perpetrated by the Nazis and the sometimes controversial choices that victims made at the expense of others in order
In the memoir Survival in Auschwitz: If This is a Man, written by Primo Levi he explicitly expresses his hardships, wants, and his survival of being held in a concentration camp. Levi dreams of his arrival back home, he wishes to be reunited by his family’s side. Home is not just a place of shelter, it is much more than that. A home to Levi is a vision of his family being welcoming with arms wide open, and in utter shock of his survival. This is a team of support, a home with physical presence of excitement. Levi lacks, and craves physical and emotional interaction. He hopes it is obtained through the forms of hearing his story with an emotional and physical reaction; such has a hug, or being able to have a shoulder to cry on. Home is where Levi will finally be able to be himself, in the form of self expression once again. A place where his stories will be heard and reacted from. Levi’s ultimate goal is to prove to them he's alive, and survived off the hope of finding his home once again. His survival is through the hope of reconnection to family, and his dreams are his escape of his horrible reality; Auschwitz being his
Dehumanization often begins with the removal of personal identification. An important language technique that Levi utilizes to mark this stage of dehumanization is listing. The use of listing can be seen in the quote, “nothing belongs to us anymore; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair”. The use of listing effectively highlights the involuntary elimination of the physical possessions that help one define oneself or express self-identity t...