If This Is A Man (Primo Levi)

A short while ago I stumbled on a recommendation for Primo Levi’s autobiographical works ‘If This Is A Man’ and ‘The Truce’. Sadly, I cannot remember where this recommendation arose but it was clearly sufficiently attention grabbing that I ordered a copy. Last night I finished reading the first part – ‘If This Is A Man’.

Primo Levi was a (Jewish) Italian chemist who was swept up by German occupying forces towards the end of the Second World War and sent to a work/concentration camp linked to Auschwitz. He is one of the few who survived this experience and one of the very few who wrote about the experience. His reason for doing so was to try to ensure that what happened in the camps would never be forgotten or taken for granted by future generations.

Quite obviously, Levi’s account of life in the camp makes for harrowing reading, but he has a way of just describing the way it was without over-analysing that makes the account highly readable and interesting but never allows the reader to escape the fact that he is not writing a story. Over time the men in the camp had almost every aspect of their humanity stripped away from them, always with the ongoing threat of the ‘Selections’ which sent so many to the gas chambers. Levi’s story is one of ingenuity – the ingenuity of taking actions and controlling thought processes to survive from day to day for no reason other than to survive (the pursuit of freedom was never a viable objective).

At school I stopped studying history at the age of about 13-14 and so I missed out on the commonly taught ‘modern European history’ element that covers this ground. Obviously I was aware of the holocaust, some of the camps and the general topic but this was pretty much the first time I have properly exposed myself to thinking about what went on. I found it fascinating and challenging and this WAS a book that I would recommend as one that people OUGHT to read.

There were a few passages that particularly struck me, one of which contained the following quote, words written by a friend of Levi tat continued to run through his mind:

“…Until one day
There will be no more sense in saying” tomorrow”