Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

Levi , Primo . Suvival in Auschwitz . New York : Touchstone Books , 1996

Primo Levi was arrested and brought to Auschwitz along with six hundred and fifty other people . Only one hundred and fifty people were allowed into the prison camp of Auschwitz , however . The remaining five hundred and fifteen people were immediately killed in gas chambers . Levi happened to be one of the survivors . All the same , the kind of survival experienced by most people in Auschwitz , as described in Levi 's autobiographical book , Survival in Auschwitz , merely consisted of breathing , eating , and sleeping

- the fulfillment of basic human needs - in an extremely humiliating environment

Once Levi had entered the prison camp of Auschwitz , he was stripped naked and his head was shaved . He was presented with a striped uniform and an identification number . Moreover , the food that he was given was always insufficient to meet his consumption needs . Thousands of his fellow prisoners died because of starvation , but Levi survived . Of course , he was determined to survive , which is the reason why he never protested against the work that was forced upon the prisoners . He knew that disobedience of any kind was ended quickly with beatings , if not death

While countless fellow prisoners of his lost their lives to disease in Auschwitz , Levi was fortunate to have been sent to an infirmary in to recover at the time he had suffered an injury . Although there were no medicines available to him , Levi was able to rest at the infirmary before returning to work . All the same , it was not manual labor that seemed to have helped him survive as much as his intellectual pursuits . Levi held a Chemistry degree which allowed him to work indoors in the Chemistry Command . While a large number of his fellow prisoners working outdoors suffered and died in their inadequate winter clothing , Levi survived because he was educated enough to perform a highly skilled indoor job

Thus , the most important reason for Levi 's survival seems to have been his intellectual life . Psychology of aging is advanced enough in our times to inform us that longevity is strongly associated with intellectual pursuits . Levi was a thinker , although he writes : It was better not to think (32 ' The author of Survival in Auschwitz also mentions that thinking may be a source of keeping sensitivity alive Sensitivity is a concept that is intimately connected with humanness So , although Levi writes that thinking could be harmful , because it keeps alive a sensitivity which is a source of pain ' the reader is made to believe in the benefits of thinking for Levi 's life in Auschwitz (171 . Furthermore , the author meditates on language . He writes that the prisoners talked a lot in the camp . It can be inferred from this memory of Levi that he must have continued to develop his thinking through his conversations

Seeing that people who are brain dead are considered dead , the body is not as important in survival as the brain , although the brain cannot survive without the body . Still , there are people who are paralyzed in their bodies but have working brains . Regardless of the real meaning of survival in religious , philosophical and medical thinking combined - the fact remains that the survival of Levi was largely due to his working intellect . He had to contemplate passing a Chemistry exam . Moreover he could have died during winter if he had not been accepted for work at Chemistry Command . While many of his fellow prisoners may have survived simply by breathing , eating , and sleeping , and many others died the survival of Levi seems to have been dependent on his intellect

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