In this memoir, Levi begins his story in Italy 1943 with his capture by “the Fascist Militia on 13 December” (Levi, 1979 p.19) after a short stint as a novice partisan in the mountains. With the benefit of hindsight he reflects that at this time, still relatively young and naive he has yet to learn the cruel lessons of life, “I had not been taught the doctrine I was later to learn so hurriedly in the Lager: that man is bound to pursue his own ends by all possible means, while he who errs but once pays dearly”(Levi, 1979 p.19).

Thrown into a concentration camp by the Italian Fascists for his Jewish heritage, it is the arrival of the German SS that signals his descent into hell. Herded like animals into converted cattle wagons, Levi joined 650 other men, women and children on a trip that would ultimately end with the deaths of the majority of those on board, ind

But without a doubt the person most instrumental in Levi’s day to day survival was his best friend and fellow Italian Alberto, with whom Levi shared a bunk and any excess scrap of food. “He understood before any of us that this life is war; he permitted himself no indulgences, he lost no time complaining and commiserating with himself and with others, but entered the battle from the beginning. He has the advantage of intelligence and intuition: he reasons correctly, often he does not reason but is equally right…. He fights for his life but still remains everybody’s friend. He knows whom to corrupt, whom to avoid, whose compassion to arose, whom to resist. Yet he himself did not become corrupt. I always saw and still see in him, the rare figure of the strong yet peace loving man against whom the weapons of night are blunted” (Levi, 1979 p63)

Levi soon becomes accustomed to the harsh realities of his new life, the constant battle with starvation, the back breaking toil and the constant shadow of extermination by gas chamber. Levi meets many different people, all with their own secrets to survival, these include Elias, the Herculean dwarf of whom Levi states, “Elias has survived the destruction from outside, because he is physically indestructible; he has resisted the annihilation from within because he is insane… he is a survivor: he is the most adaptable, the human type most suited to this way of living”.(Levi, 1979 p.103) Then there is Henri, “eminently civilized and sane… he possess a complete and organic theory on ways to survive in Lager…he has cut off every tie of affection; he has closed

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