4. Ka-Be

Primo’s neighbor had the organic decay which was known to be the worst kind. Later he was lined up and taken away to a place one would not want to know where, but knows: the gas chambers. Of course the German soldiers would have not felt the obligation to keep the Jews alive and well for their well being. If they don’t heal, too bad; they are taken away to their deaths (the sooner the better for the Germans). If they heal, then good for them and back to work.[We were] killed in our spirit long before our anonymous death. No one must leave here and so carry to the world, together with the sign impressed on his skin, the evil tidings of what man’s presumption made of man in Auschwitz (pg.55)

Primo felt how much like animals they were treated. He started to question himself, “What makes a man?” Because in Auschwitz, he was not a man. He was lower than the status of a criminal. He was not even allowed to be in the brothels where criminals, especially the ones who give the Jews a difficult time, could go to. Because of how they were treated in Auschwitz, does that make Primo and all the other people of the “Jewish race” any less human than they really were.