Survival In Aushwitz

“ They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find ourselves the strength to do so, to manage somehow so that behind the name something of us, of us as we were, still remains.”(Levi, 27) The author, Primo Levi, is referring to what he calls as, “ the demolition of a man� (Levi, 26) this reference becomes a common reoccurring theme in the text Survival in Auschwitz and the film Life is Beautiful. In both texts we see our main characters being stripped of everything they own, tangible or intangible. Still, both main characters manage to maintain the one thing that defines them, their dignity. Dignity was something that that, as hard as the opposition tried, could not take from them. This ultimately kept them alive in the face of death, and in turn, what could be defined as a man.
When discussing the demolition of a man we first need to discuss what, exactly, defines a man. In my opinion, it is what lies in his soul, his most basic existence, his faith and his will to go on. Both of our characters resisted the transformation into becoming sheep and being led to the slaughter, like so many others around them had been doing. They resisted oppression by showing they had the confidence in the dignit

Levi’s coping mechanism throughout the book lies in his theory of the demolition of a man. Everything was taken from him, besides that of which could not be broken; his intellect and his will to survive. He viewed his experience as a scientific experiment; he remained impartial and analytical, maintaining his existence in, what he called, “the struggle for life.”(Levi, 87) “ We are in fact convinced that no human experience is without meaning or unworthy analysis, and that fundamental values, even if they are not positive, can be deduced by this particular world that we are describing.” (Levi, 87)

He saw opportunities and, in the face of danger, took them for the sake of his wife and child. His quick thinking and cool use of intellect gives faith to his wife and child, ultimately pushing them to go on, in much needed times. He yells out to his wife on the loudspeaker, just as he and his son were walking by and the soldiers walking away, “buongiorno pricipessa!” He lets the son, Joshua, speak to her, whom she earlier thought was dead. He also does the same, at a later time, just as she began to loose faith again. By thinking quickly while he is working in the presence of the Nazi regime he finds a song to play for his wife. It is a song taken from the opera that brings them back, for a split moment, to their fist date in Venezia when times were blissful. Both of these instances encourage her, in a time of need, and gives her the strength to go on, and not fall prey to tyranny.

He takes whatever opportunities become available at that instant, and by thinking on his toes, uses his intellect to overcome his many trials. In doing so he also saves his sons life, in many ways and many times over. First, by sheltering him from the bare reality of what is going on around him, he in fact turns