Survival in Auschwitz
Survival in Auschwitz The Holocaust is considered one of the worst genocides in history, known for it’s merciless killings and torture of Jews and other outcasts. The cruelness of the genocide can be witnessed first hand in the novel Survival in Auschwitz. Survival in Auschwitz was written by Primo Levi, an Italian Jew who was a prisoner in the concentration camp of Auschwitz when he was the age of twenty-four. He managed to leave Auschwitz alive, and dedicated the rest of his life to writing about the Holocaust and his experiences. Levi goes into detail about the horrors of the camp, and explains how prison effects how humans act morally. The Nazis degrade the Jews so deeply that they view them as animals, not important enough to receive basic human needs. Being treated as an animal takes a large toll on the normal ethics that the Jews practice outside of prison. It becomes evident how the prisoners change the way they act throughout their stay at Auschwitz. Because of being treated as non-humans, the Jews resorted to stealing and stopped helping others. According to Primo Levi, the Nazis dehumanized concentration camp internees; as a result, Jews were forced to create their own corrupt system of morals to survive. There is no question that the guarding Nazis dehumanized the Jews in Auschwitz. The acts Nazis committed against Jews are described in detail throughout the entire novel. This is depicted in the beginning of the novel; when the Jews are taken from their homes they are immediately shoved into packed lorries, comparable to how animals are shipped. However, when the Jews arrive at Auschwitz, the Nazis have them under false pretenses that life in the prison does not have to be miserable. A man comes in to tell the Jews that if they work hard they will be rewarded; that there will be concerts and football matches, and suggests that they will be fed decently. However, the promise is not kept, and the dehumanization of the Jews really begins