Survival in Auschwitz - 994 Words

An Explanation for the Holocaust Everyone who has taken a history course that goes through the 20th century knows about the atrocities performed in Nazi Germany; 11 million people exterminated and countless others put into concentration camps with unimaginable conditions. But most people do not try to explain how the German soldiers could do these things to other human beings. Primo Levi in his book Survival in Auschwitz attempts to answer this question. He begins by explaining the physical and psychological transformation of the prisoners and how that enabled the Germans to see the prisoners as inhuman and therefore oppress-able. Levi believes that the Germans treated the Jewish prisoners horrendously because of the prisoner’s†¦show more content†¦What more concrete proof of their victory?† (Levi 51) This view of social dominance and evolutionary superiority is very in line with the views of the Nazi Party and ordinary Germans. This hate for the Jews starts with Hitler’s Ant-Jewish propaganda and the implementation of the Nuremberg laws. In â€Å"Perish the Jew,† Hitler puts his views of racial superiority into writing, â€Å"The Aryan regards work as the basis for the maintenance of the national community as such; the Jew regards work as a means of exploiting other peoples† (Hitler 223). With this writing and other propaganda, Hitler successfully spread a hate for Jewish people across the country. Hitler then created the Nuremberg Laws, which slowly but successfully stripped the Jews of all their rights and made them second-class citizens in Germany. The Jews slowly became, in the eyes of the German people and the SS, people who could be consciously oppressed and turned into slave workers. Obviously nothing justifies the heinous treatment of Jews in concentr ation camps, but Levi gives us reasons why he believed the SS were able to treat Jews in this way. He believed that the prisoner’s appearance after a few days, â€Å"dirty and repugnant,† could have been a source of the terrible treatment; it is much easier to oppress those who look almost inhuman. Levi also believed the treatment was just another way to prove racial superiority. The ability to completely suppress andShow MoreRelatedSurvival in Auschwitz1252 Words   |  6 PagesLevi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz; The Nazi Assault on Humanity. 1st edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. 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. Primo Levi, a 24-year-old Jewish chemist from Turin Italy, was captured by the fascist militia in December 1943 and deported to Camp Buna-Monowitz in Auschwitz. The trip by train took 4 long days in a jam-packed boxcarRead More Survival In Auschwitz Essay541 Words   |  3 Pageshis 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 â€Å"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 degreeRead MoreSurvival In Auschwitz Essay1690 Words   |  7 PagesLevi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz; The Nazi Assault on Humanity. 1st edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. 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. Primo Levi, a 24-year-old Jewish chemist from Turin Italy, was captured by the fascist militia in December 1943 and deported to Camp Buna-Monowitz in Auschwitz. The trip by train took 4 long days in a jam-packed boxcarRead MorePrimo Levi Survival in Auschwitz848 Words   |  4 PagesEXAM QUESTION 1 PART A Survival in Auschwitz written by Primo Levi is a first-hand description of the atrocities which took place in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. The book provides an explicit depiction of camp life: the squalor, the insufficient food supply, the seemingly endless labour, cramped living space, and the barter-based economy which the prisoners lived. Levi through use of his simple yet powerful words outlined the motive behind Auschwitz, the tactical dehumanization and exterminationRead MorePrimo Levis Survival in Auschwitz1607 Words   |  7 PagesReading the novel Survival in Auschwitz by author Primo Levi leads one to wonder whether his survival is attributed to his indefinite will to survive or a very subservient streak of luck. Throughout the novel, he is time and again spared from the fate that supposedly lies ahead of all inhabitants of the death camp at Auschwitz. Whether it was falling ill at the most convenient times or coming in contact with prisoners who had a compassio nate, albeit uncommon, disposition, it would seem as thoughRead MorePrimo Levis Survival In Auschwitz1261 Words   |  6 PagesPrimo Levi writes Survival in Auschwitz not to tell the reader about the atrocities inside the concentration camp called Auschwitz. He acknowledges that the world knows too much about these places to learn anything from him, so his goal is not to educate the reader about the things that went on while he was a prisoner at the camp. Rather, he writes this book to â€Å"†¦ furnish documentation from a quiet study of certain aspects of the human mind† (Levi 9). In this book, Levi orders his stories notRead MoreSurvival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi1498 Words   |  6 Pageshow situation drastically changed to modern time. But it wouldn’t have become a lesson if no one looked at the issues people had affected society to present and future. According to the well known book in 20th century written by Primo Levi, Survival In Auschwitz, he explai ned about the time of his experience as a young 24 year old man being placed in German camp since he was considered as â€Å"Italian citizen and Jewish raced†. During the holocaust, it is one of the most horrible case of position to beRead MoreSummary of Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi 1019 Words   |  4 PagesIn Survival In Auschwitz, Primo Levi details his experience of life inside of Auschwitz and as a Holocaust survivor. Levi was a twenty-five year old chemist who was involved in the anti-Fascist movement in Italy. In late 1943, Levi was captured and sent to Auschwitz, where he stayed for the remainder of the war. Survival in Auschwitz is a bitter account, drenched and coated in pain, hunger, and cold. Prisoners are gradually dehumanised into Haftlinge who are only concerned with their own existenceRead MoreEssay on Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi922 Words   |  4 Pages Primo Levi, in his novel Survival in Auschwitz (2008), illustrates the atrocities inflicte d upon the prisoners of the concentration camp by the Schutzstaffel, through dehumanization. Levi describes â€Å"the denial of humanness† constantly forced upon the prisoners through similes, metaphors, and imagery of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization (â€Å"Dehumanization†). He makes his readers aware of the cruel reality in the concentration camp in order to help them examine the psychological effects dehumanizationRead More Primo Levis Survival in Auschwitz Essay1581 Words   |  7 PagesPrimo Levis Survival in Auschwitz Reading the novel Survival in Auschwitz by author Primo Levi leads one to wonder whether his survival is attributed to his indefinite will to survive or a very subservient streak of luck. Throughout the novel, he is time and again spared from the fate that supposedly lies ahead of all inhabitants of the death camp at Auschwitz. Whether it was falling ill at the most convenient times or coming in contact with prisoners who had a compassionate, albeit uncommon