“Late that night the Greek doctor returned with a rucksack on his shoulders and a woolen hood. He threw a French novel on my bed. ‘Keep it, read it, Italian. You can give it back to me when we meet again.’ Even today I hate him for those words. He knew that we were doomed.” (pg. 155)
At this time, the camps are being evacuated, and Primo Levi and all of the other sick are left behind. Primo Levi is well aware that he is either going to die or be rescued, one of the two extremes. Primo Levi is probably scared to death at this moment in his life, for he really has no idea what will happen once the camp is evacuated. At least when he was in the camp he knew the pattern of the German’s day, and could at least be prepared to die. But at this time, he had a little hope and a little fear. This doctor comes into his room and gives him a completely useless book, probably just because he doesn’t want to carry it. Yet this Greek doctor probably feels that he was doing a good deed by giving Primo Levi something to do while he was starving to death.
“I judged his self-sacrifice by the tiredness which I would have had to overcome in myself to do what he had done.” (pg.167)
After reading this passage, I was extremely impressed with Levi, Charles, and Arthur. Surprisingly, after the German SS men had left, they took care of the patients with typhus in their room. I was definitely astonishedy by what they have done because they could have chosen a better way to just leave them and do less work but they did not chose to do so. I was stunned to see that even in situation like this, they sacrificed themselves to take care of their mates. Even until the end, they did not forget how much it is important to care about others in any circumstances, even through fearful and dreadful situations. They found potato to make soup for them, cleaned their mess when they throw up, encouraged them with words of comfort and inspiration by taking care of them. I personally thought that they survived in Auschwitz not only physically but because of their character with strong passion and care. Even through difficult circumstances and hardships, they managed to help others. It once again taught me a life lesson. When facing a hardship or a difficult situation, panicking and putting yourself down is definitely not a best thing to do. Asking God for help, asking teachers, friends for help is the BEST thing. They are always there for a reason, and putting yourself down without even giving it a try is not right.
The story of ten days is a very long chapter, and this story of ten days with his friend Aurthur and Charles is unbelievable. Despite the harsh environment and illness they had, they mentioned to survive until help came to them. They found food to sustain them from starving to death and they also found enough water that wasn't contaminated to quench their thirst. Also, the weak and the sick were left behind the camps, which meant that it was highly capable for him to catch contagious diseases from these sick men. Primo and his friends, however, managed to find enough food, water, and warmth to help each other survive until help came to them. This was maybe possible since they were so used to the harsh cnoditions, and the primitive way of surviving hunger and thirst.It was ironic how the people were filled with hope when they were being evacuated from the camps. The people who were wealthy enough to march, were hoping that they would find a new refuge much better than Auschwitz, and they thought that this would all end. This, however, was a march towards death, not towards a new start.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
16. The Last One
"... The trapdoor opened, the body wriggled horribly; the band began playing again and we were once more lined up and filed past the quivering body of the dying man." (pg. 149)
In this chapter, the ‘last’ one was executed, the pride and dignity of the prisoners, the Jews, were destroyed. The SS soldiers had achieved victory upon their plans for genocide. The soldiers not only demolished the physical bodies of the Jews, but also their mental and spritual minds. Jews worked hard throughout the endless days in the concentration camps, but they were gifted with death and torture. The Jews were now worthless on earth due to their loss of self-esteem and dignity. They were defeated from the beginning to the end.
Through this chapter, I learned an unforgettable life lesson. This chapter realized how great environment I was bestowed upon. Not only teenagers like me, but also people of all ages often complain how better our lives could have been and how more we deserve than what we have. We desire what others have, and envy wealth and prosperity. But what really matters is what we were given. Because God has created each and everyone equal with gifts, there is a reason to why we were gifted with such situations in the environment.
In this chapter, the ‘last’ one was executed, the pride and dignity of the prisoners, the Jews, were destroyed. The SS soldiers had achieved victory upon their plans for genocide. The soldiers not only demolished the physical bodies of the Jews, but also their mental and spritual minds. Jews worked hard throughout the endless days in the concentration camps, but they were gifted with death and torture. The Jews were now worthless on earth due to their loss of self-esteem and dignity. They were defeated from the beginning to the end.
Through this chapter, I learned an unforgettable life lesson. This chapter realized how great environment I was bestowed upon. Not only teenagers like me, but also people of all ages often complain how better our lives could have been and how more we deserve than what we have. We desire what others have, and envy wealth and prosperity. But what really matters is what we were given. Because God has created each and everyone equal with gifts, there is a reason to why we were gifted with such situations in the environment.
15. Die drei Leute vom Labor
In chapter 15, Levi mainly talks about how uncertain their future is and how they are lucky to survive throughout their duration in the camp. Then, Primo Levi is chosen one of the three to work as specialists in the Laboratory. Inside this Laboratory, he is ensured with the survival of the cold winter and less suffering from hunger because he was not subject to physical labor. He describes how he remembers many objects and is happy to see familiar sites of when he was a free man. He states how the condition he is currently in is better than those who work in the cold how he received a book to refresh his analytical skills. Due to the good conditions that he received inside the labs, nothing had changed outside. Primo Levi, by being chosen for the Laboratory was able to experience a closer form of humanity because of the treatment that was different from the ‘outside’ but on the other hand, others were still fighting against death and were in constant fear of selections.
Moreover, in this chapter, Primo describes how 174,000 Italian Jews were first arrived at Auschwitz and how only twenty-one now survived. This tells a great deal of how many people were exterminated by the Germans during the Holocaust. I was absolutely stunned.
14. Kraus
Reading this chapter, I was outraged to see how the work and effort among the Jews were worthless. Prisoners weren't acknowledged by how hard they work or how much effort they are putting into. No matter how hard they try, to the German soldiers, Jews were just considered as Jews. They were always treated inhumanly. All the work and effort ended up in executions. They were never acknowledged.
Here is a similar example. Let's say that you have worked hours and hours for a project and you have received a grade that certainly didn't match your precognition, how would you feel? You were not acknowledged of your effort for hours and hours. I would definitely feel mortified. This situation can not be compared to the hardships that the Jews went through, but it can be a comparision somehow. If a piece of project made me feel so mortified and outraged, how would the Jews, who worked so hard and received such treatment, feel?
Here is a similar example. Let's say that you have worked hours and hours for a project and you have received a grade that certainly didn't match your precognition, how would you feel? You were not acknowledged of your effort for hours and hours. I would definitely feel mortified. This situation can not be compared to the hardships that the Jews went through, but it can be a comparision somehow. If a piece of project made me feel so mortified and outraged, how would the Jews, who worked so hard and received such treatment, feel?
13. October 1944
“Seven out of ten of us will die. Whoever does not die will suffer minute by minute, all day, everyday." (pg.123)
It is the time when the selection starts and sends the majority of prisoners to the gas chambers and also the coldness starts to pierce the prisoners’ body. Only with a shirt, underpants, cloth jacket, and trousers, they have to endure the cold winter and wait for their death to be announced. Winter equals no hope.During the selection, it is mostly randomly picked. In three or four minutes, a hut of two hundred men is done (there are about sixty huts), as well as the twelve thousand men inside the concentration camps. After the selection, the chosen ones receive a privilege, gaining a double ration during their meals, which made me feel awkward about it.
“Just as our hunger is not that feeling of missing a meal, so our way of being cold has need of a new word. We say ‘hunger’, we say ‘tiredness,’ ‘fear,’ ‘pain,’ we say ‘winter’ and they are different things. They are free words, created and used by free men who lived in comfort and suffering in their homes. If the Lagers had lasted longer a new, harsh language would have been born; and only this language could express what it means to toil the whole day in the wind, with the temperature below freezing, wearing only a shirt, underpants, cloth jacket and trousers, and in one’s body nothing but weakness, hunger and knowledge of the end drawing nearer.”(pg.123)
I agree with what Primo has to say with the words, “hunger, tiredness, fear, pain, and winter.” Just as Primo stated that they are just free words, which seems to represent ‘the feeling,’ which the prisoners feel at the camps. Winter did not simply represent one season out of four to the prisoners. To them it forshadowed suffer and death. It was coming, and they could not avoid it. It was the reality and it had to happen. Prisoners fear the launch of winter, which meant death. I was extremely doleful about the fact that the prisoners feared winter. Because I never feared winter. Actually I always waited for winter to play in the snow, make snowmans, play snowfight, go skiing and etc. I realized that there are people in this world who used to fear winter because it confronts death and suffering in the concentration camps. Once again, I realized how blessed and gifted I was.
It is the time when the selection starts and sends the majority of prisoners to the gas chambers and also the coldness starts to pierce the prisoners’ body. Only with a shirt, underpants, cloth jacket, and trousers, they have to endure the cold winter and wait for their death to be announced. Winter equals no hope.During the selection, it is mostly randomly picked. In three or four minutes, a hut of two hundred men is done (there are about sixty huts), as well as the twelve thousand men inside the concentration camps. After the selection, the chosen ones receive a privilege, gaining a double ration during their meals, which made me feel awkward about it.
“Just as our hunger is not that feeling of missing a meal, so our way of being cold has need of a new word. We say ‘hunger’, we say ‘tiredness,’ ‘fear,’ ‘pain,’ we say ‘winter’ and they are different things. They are free words, created and used by free men who lived in comfort and suffering in their homes. If the Lagers had lasted longer a new, harsh language would have been born; and only this language could express what it means to toil the whole day in the wind, with the temperature below freezing, wearing only a shirt, underpants, cloth jacket and trousers, and in one’s body nothing but weakness, hunger and knowledge of the end drawing nearer.”(pg.123)
I agree with what Primo has to say with the words, “hunger, tiredness, fear, pain, and winter.” Just as Primo stated that they are just free words, which seems to represent ‘the feeling,’ which the prisoners feel at the camps. Winter did not simply represent one season out of four to the prisoners. To them it forshadowed suffer and death. It was coming, and they could not avoid it. It was the reality and it had to happen. Prisoners fear the launch of winter, which meant death. I was extremely doleful about the fact that the prisoners feared winter. Because I never feared winter. Actually I always waited for winter to play in the snow, make snowmans, play snowfight, go skiing and etc. I realized that there are people in this world who used to fear winter because it confronts death and suffering in the concentration camps. Once again, I realized how blessed and gifted I was.
12. The Events of the Summer
But Lorenzo was a man; his humanity was pure and uncontaminated, he was outside this world of negation. Thanks to Lorenzo, I managed not to forget that I myself was a man.” (pg.122)
By reading this passage, I realized the real character of Lorenzo. He is already my role model. Because Lorenzo had such a good character, he became the "someone" that I wanted to look up to. Levi wasn’t exactly living a Christian life, because he would steal, and was ready to do anything in order to survive. But when he saw Lorenzo, he noticed that one could survive in the camp without being corrupted. Just how Jesus showed us love that no one else coud have shown, Lorenzo stood up to be that "someone" to be like a human living in such dreadful conditions and live a godly life.
Through Lorenzo, Primo Levi managed not to forget that he was still a man. Lorenzo's pureness from the world of negation was why Levi felt that way. Lorenzo in the story symbolizes hope and balance that Levi needed to survive. Although Levi knew that trying to read the future was a waste, the fact that he was able to identify himself as a human seems to be the reason he survived. Based on the italicized passage above, I wonder even if now there is a world that is pure and whole. I believe that every single person is seeking for 'trueness'. We are always looking for something better and something that exceeds our limits. This indeed is the nature of human beings. However, the camps blocked men from desiring and hoping for a future.
By reading this passage, I realized the real character of Lorenzo. He is already my role model. Because Lorenzo had such a good character, he became the "someone" that I wanted to look up to. Levi wasn’t exactly living a Christian life, because he would steal, and was ready to do anything in order to survive. But when he saw Lorenzo, he noticed that one could survive in the camp without being corrupted. Just how Jesus showed us love that no one else coud have shown, Lorenzo stood up to be that "someone" to be like a human living in such dreadful conditions and live a godly life.
Through Lorenzo, Primo Levi managed not to forget that he was still a man. Lorenzo's pureness from the world of negation was why Levi felt that way. Lorenzo in the story symbolizes hope and balance that Levi needed to survive. Although Levi knew that trying to read the future was a waste, the fact that he was able to identify himself as a human seems to be the reason he survived. Based on the italicized passage above, I wonder even if now there is a world that is pure and whole. I believe that every single person is seeking for 'trueness'. We are always looking for something better and something that exceeds our limits. This indeed is the nature of human beings. However, the camps blocked men from desiring and hoping for a future.
11. The Canto of Ulysses
“But thousands of feet above us, in the gaps in the grey clouds, the complicated miracles of aerial duels began. Above us, bare, helpless and unarmed, men of our time sought reciprocal death with the most refined of instruments. A movement of a finger could cause the destruction of the entire camp, could annihilate thousands of men; while the sum total of all our efforts and exertions would not be sufficient to prolong by one minute the life of even one of us” (pg.172)
Just like Primo Levi who survived through the tremendous torture, brutal treatment from SS officer, the bleak and freezing winter, deceptions among the prisoners, and much more. But it seemed like he wasn’t proud of himself at all. He was into glorifying the people that have passed away from this experience because he truly believed that the people that have actually died in the camp are the true eye-witnesses to this horrible disasterIf I put myself in Primo Levi's shoes, I would create a totally opposite character. I would certainly not be able to survive through such torture. Even when I get my freedom from the concentration camp, all the terrible memories and everlasting hardships would be perpetual.
Just like Primo Levi who survived through the tremendous torture, brutal treatment from SS officer, the bleak and freezing winter, deceptions among the prisoners, and much more. But it seemed like he wasn’t proud of himself at all. He was into glorifying the people that have passed away from this experience because he truly believed that the people that have actually died in the camp are the true eye-witnesses to this horrible disasterIf I put myself in Primo Levi's shoes, I would create a totally opposite character. I would certainly not be able to survive through such torture. Even when I get my freedom from the concentration camp, all the terrible memories and everlasting hardships would be perpetual.
10. Chemical Examination
I think this goes for every students in Korea. I'm not sure about other countries, but mostly when you are born in Korea, from the moment you enter elementary school until you graduate, your parents would likely to tell you about how "studying" and "knowledge" is the most important factor in your life. Whenever my parents told me that, I certainly opposed to their sayings and walked away, but reading this chapted gave me another chance to reconsider the saying. Just how "knowledge" helped Primo in the concentration camp to survive longer than other Jews.
This chapter describes the process of the chemical examination where officers choose the talented and educated ones to work on a privileged workspace. If one is qualified and chosen, they can be exempted from harsh physical labor, but can work using their brains. This chapter may seem wearisome and difficult, but I think that this chapter sets the turning point for Primo since he finds a glimpse of hope from the job that he earns. In previous chapters, it was described how Primo was accepted in the lab and how brutal the work was, and how he had no hope of surviving the camp. Primo's acceptance in this chapter, however, sets off the turning point for Primo to start having hope again.
Therefore I want to bring up a life lesson that I learned from this chapter. Learning is always good! You'll never know it when you're learning, but who knows! You never know, maybe writing diaries like this might save your life in the future!
This chapter describes the process of the chemical examination where officers choose the talented and educated ones to work on a privileged workspace. If one is qualified and chosen, they can be exempted from harsh physical labor, but can work using their brains. This chapter may seem wearisome and difficult, but I think that this chapter sets the turning point for Primo since he finds a glimpse of hope from the job that he earns. In previous chapters, it was described how Primo was accepted in the lab and how brutal the work was, and how he had no hope of surviving the camp. Primo's acceptance in this chapter, however, sets off the turning point for Primo to start having hope again.
Therefore I want to bring up a life lesson that I learned from this chapter. Learning is always good! You'll never know it when you're learning, but who knows! You never know, maybe writing diaries like this might save your life in the future!
9. The Drowned and the Saved
Thousands of individuals, differing in age, conition, origin, language, culture and customs, are enclosed within barbed wire: there they live a regular, controlled life which is identical for all and inadequate to all needs, and which is more rigorous than any experimenter could have set up to establish what is essentail and what adventitious to the conduct of the human animal in the struggle for life.
Alfred, Alias, and Schepschel were all survivors that were selfish and self-centered. They had no other choice but to be self-centered since there was no time to care and depend on each other. Some people in the camps cling on to their dignity, and some throw their humane side away in order to survive. Putting myself into their shoes, I would probably be a beast in order to survive and undergo such harsh treatments and conditions. When humans face desperate situations confronting death, they tend to do whatever it takes in order to survive. That's common sense, because no one wants to die. But unlike other Jews, Primo was quite different. His writings showed somewhat care and love towards other Jews. Being self-centered was common, but showing love and care was another possibility.
Alfred, Alias, and Schepschel were all survivors that were selfish and self-centered. They had no other choice but to be self-centered since there was no time to care and depend on each other. Some people in the camps cling on to their dignity, and some throw their humane side away in order to survive. Putting myself into their shoes, I would probably be a beast in order to survive and undergo such harsh treatments and conditions. When humans face desperate situations confronting death, they tend to do whatever it takes in order to survive. That's common sense, because no one wants to die. But unlike other Jews, Primo was quite different. His writings showed somewhat care and love towards other Jews. Being self-centered was common, but showing love and care was another possibility.
8. This Side of Good and Evil
“The news had immediate repercussions. All who illegally posseassed second shirts, stolen or organized, or even honestly bought with bread as a protection against the cold or to invest capital in a moment of prosperity, immediately rushed to the Exchange Market, hoping to arrive in time to barter their reserve shirts for food products before the flood of new shirts, or the certainity of their arrival, irreparably devalued the price of the article” (pg.78)
When we look at the world of Auschwitz, the existence of black market was extremely fundamental to the prisoners. We humans think that the black market is a negative thing because it is obviously illegal. However, when we place ourselves in the shoes of the Jews in the concentration camp at that time, we would have been devastated if the black market didn’t exist. When humans are situated at the edge of our lives, determining the matter of life or death, there is nothing to keep; even justice, morality, and even honesty disappears. It is human nature that all human beings on earth do fear our deaths.
When we look at the world of Auschwitz, the existence of black market was extremely fundamental to the prisoners. We humans think that the black market is a negative thing because it is obviously illegal. However, when we place ourselves in the shoes of the Jews in the concentration camp at that time, we would have been devastated if the black market didn’t exist. When humans are situated at the edge of our lives, determining the matter of life or death, there is nothing to keep; even justice, morality, and even honesty disappears. It is human nature that all human beings on earth do fear our deaths.
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