"Survival in Auschwitz" response

“Survival in Auschwitz”

Primo Levi wrote “Survival in Auschwitz” after spending a year in the famous concentration camp of the same name. The accounts of his story shocked me to my core. The writing is crisp and detailed unbelievably considering the stress and pain Levi was in the entire time of his incarceration. Primo Levi deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort to promote peace by describing so eloquently his battle through the war and horror of Auschwitz.
The first line of the book, “I was captured…” start the story running that never ceases. Auschwitz begins very early on, without a glimpse of the past life until near the end of the book; I think to signify his thoughts about his life during his time in Auschwitz. He never thought about his past, and never wanted to because of the pain. The beginnings of thought toward the past lead to pain, which lead to questions about the pain, which can only lead to more pain. Answers never come for the questions, as the past never enters the mind.
The details of prisoners changing into different kinds of beings when imprisoned stands out in the book. Every item can and will be stolen. People hold everything useful to themselves, their spoon, bowl, shirt, shoes, and anything else available. If unnoticed for a second it will be stolen. The amount of betrayal among the prisoners astounded me.
The veterans of the prison (low numbers) despise and ridicule the new prisoners (high numbers) because of their questions, their stupidity about how things work, their ineptitude about conserving strength, and just distrust and impatience with the new convicts surprised me with the lack of mercy or empathy.
A prisoner in Auschwitz adapted to the point of insanity. If it was raining and snowing and windy, the prisoner could think, “At least I’m almost done with work” or a million other examples. The will of the human mind to adapt is immeasurable. The body could not always match the mind’s fervor.
The hunger pervades everything in Auschwitz. It supercedes the pain, the work, the tiredness. The hunger acts as an old friend always around. The hunger described by Levi is unique to Auschwitz and overpowers all other senses or thoughts.
The finality of the Germans in “Survival in Auschwitz” surprised me to an extent. I knew the SS were nasty, but to hear them described as, “People that hit without hate” took me a while to understand. They were hitting their dogs as if the animal messed on the carpet. They were not mad at them; the Jews were beneath them. The amount of hate overflowed so much that it was not hate anymore; it was indifference, ignorance so blind to forgo hating.
Levi is a great writer of his time because of the subject matter. I cannot say his verbs were beautiful, or his paragraphs were sound. I can say his book deeply affected me and should to anyone who reads it. It paints a picture of Auschwitz rarely seen. It paints a picture that needs to be seen.