(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Surviving Auschwitz by Primo Levi

He survived due to luck, acquaintances and his intelligence. The reader learns the prisoner's everyday life. In the morning they wake up at dawn in a rush to get ready for an eighteen hour day of labor. At all times they must be aware of their belongings or else they could be stolen in a blink of an eye. It is winter when Levi arrives at the camp learning the harsh conditions the prisoners faced on a daily basis. The prisoners wore wooden shoes which caused them swollen feet with many cuts. Levi describes the poor clothing they wore and how due to it many prisoners died from exposure. He survived due to acquaintances he made in the camp that helped him gaining food, acquiring goods and showing him little ways that were essential to surviving in the camp. Since Levi was a very good chemist he was able to acquire a job in a laboratory at the camp keeping him away from the harsh winter conditions. .
             Levi states that in Auschwitz the prisoners were always being exposed to insults, and were always vulnerable to abuse. They were nothing but a number in the camp they were stripped from their identity causing them to be stripped from their humanity at the same time. He says, "We are the slaves of the slaves, whom all can give orders to, and our name is the number which we carry tattooed on our arm and sewn to our jacket (Levi 72)." It is hard to fathom all the hardships the prisoners endured. However, Levi facilitates the reader to meditate on it with all the details he provides. .
             Through Levi's story the reader admires his strength and endurance. The prisoners worked about eighteen hours a day, where the only good thing to look forward to was food and sleep. They would get a piece of bread and a half pint of soup a day. They would sleep crowded and cold. With everything looking so negative it would have been so easy for him to give up and stop fighting but he never gave up. Levi helps one understand the human yearning for survival.


Essays Related to Surviving Auschwitz by Primo Levi

1. Holocaust

The proposition that it was pure chance that enabled Primo Levi to survive Auschwitz is indeed contentious, if not vastly simplistic. In order to fully comprehend what it was that enabled Primo Levi to survive the death camps we must carefully examine the thoughts and experiences that are chronicled in his memoir published under the title "If this is a man". ... (Levi 1979 p.24)The end of the train journey is heralded by the brightly illuminated sign above the gates of Auschwitz, Arbeit Macht Frei, and to Levi, "This is hell. ... (Levi 1979 p.43) But it is perhaps the wisdom of one man tha...

  • Word Count: 1099
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography

2. Survival In Aushwitz

(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. ... Primo also takes advantage of every given possible situation he can, ultimately also saving his life. ... Primo Levi, is by nature and profession a scientist. ... He learns fast to stop asking questions, as no one will help you when you are in a game of survival, when they themselves are struggling to survive, and only the fittest will survive, i.e. ... Everything was ta...

  • Word Count: 1238
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Holocaust

The novel, Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and the short story "The Block of Death" by Sarah Nomberg-Przytyk, are two works of literature that portray how the Jews behaved. In the novel, Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi tells us, in vivid detail, his life while he was in the camp. ... Yet the way I see it is if one was to steal from his fellow Jew, he was therefore possibly giving him less of a chance to survive, so he himself can survive. ... This is a story about a young girl, Cyla, who was transported to Auschwitz from Slovakia in 1941. ... When I read the story about Cyla and Prim...

  • Word Count: 1370
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Concentration Camps

Of all the people sent to Auschwitz, only 65,000 survived (Adler 48). ... Of the 700,000 people who were sent to Treblinka and were murdered, gassed, and buried only forty survived (Steiner 35). ... Although millions of prisoners died in the concentration camps, many survived to tell about the horrible ordeal they went through. One man, Primo Levi, author of "Survival at Auschwitz,"" lived 42 years with the pain of knowing what happened when he was in Auschwitz. ... Some had the strength to survive yet many were brutally tortured and murdered. ...

  • Word Count: 1485
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Morgen Fruh: Tomorrow Morning

Morgen Fruh: Tomorrow Morning Primo Levi's, Survival in Auschwitz, is autobiographical account of the ten months that Levi spent in a German death camp. ... The Germans are taking away the Jews future; all that matters to the prisoners is how to survive the now, their slang for never is: morgen fruh, tomorrow morning. From the moment that prisoners entered Auschwitz the campaign began of transforming men into beasts, the Germans immediately begin to use time as a means to take away the Jews humanity. ... Levi claims at one point, "Poor silly Kraus. ... Levi and many of his comrades ...

  • Word Count: 1022
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Italy And The Holocaust

The majority of the Jewish Italians at the time, according to Zuccotti, were brave, resourceful, individualistic, nonsubmissive, and determined to survive, while a small minority were terrified, unimaginative, passive, and unable to save their own lives. ...

  • Word Count: 4666
  • Approx Pages: 19
  • Has Bibliography

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question