Όταν είχα επισκεφτεί το Άουσβιτς σε ένα ταξίδι μου στην Κρακοβία είχα επιστρέψει συγκλονισμένη και έκανα να συνέλθω αρκετές εβδομάδες. Και δεν φημίζομαι ότι συγκλονίζομαι εύκολα.

Το Ολοκαύτωμα αποτελεί μια μελανή σελίδα στην ιστορία της ανθρωπότητας και, πραγματικά είναι άλλο να διαβάζεις για αυτό, άλλο να βλέπεις και να ξεναγείσαι στον βαριά φορτωμένο με μνήμες χώρο και, εννοείται, εντελώς άλλο να έχεις επιζήσει και να διηγείσαι για αυτό.

Ο Πρίμο Λέβι περιγράφει συνταρακτικά γεγονότα χωρίς εμπάθεια, μίσος ή κακία και αυτό είναι το μεγάλο προσόν της γραφής του. Παραθέτει όσα έζησε αφήνοντας τον αναγνώστη να διακρίνει και όλα όσα τον έκαναν να πονέσει.

Για τους αναγνώστες που δεν θα άντεχαν να διαβάσουν το βιβλίο λόγω του θέματος του, έχω μια προτροπή. Βρείτε το βιβλίο από κάπου, πχ μια δανειστική βιβλιοθήκη και διαβάστε τις τελευταίες του σελίδες, από το Επίμετρο της σελ. 211, όπου ο συγγραφέας απαντά σε ερωτήσεις παιδιών και ενηλίκων.
Στη συνέχεια διαβάστε το Παράρτημα που καλύπτει μια συνέντευξη του συγγραφέα στον Philip Roth. Ακολουθεί ένα σχόλιο από τον ίδιο τον συγγραφέα και ένα ακόμα από τον Claudio Magris. Αποκαλύπτεται ένας σεμνός και έξυπνος άνθρωπος που έχει σκεφτεί και έχει πονέσει πολύ.

Σε κάποια στιγμή τον ρωτούν "Σκεφτήκατε ποτέ να αυτοκτονήσετε όσο ήσαστε εκεί;" Και αναφέρει ότι είχε σκεφτεί την αυτοκτονία πριν και μετά το στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης αλλά ποτέ όσο ήταν εκεί.

Και όμως! Αυτός ο άνθρωπος που κατέγραψε την εμπειρία του για να ανακουφιστεί και να βγάλει από μέσα του όσα τραυματικά βίωσε, αυτός που επεξεργάστηκε τα συμβάντα με λογική και με την αναγκαία χρονική αποστασιοποίηση, αυτός που δεν αυτοκτόνησε κάτω από το βάρος της τραγικής καθημερινότητας του στρατοπέδου, έβαλε τέλος στη ζωή του, πέφτοντας από τον 3ο όροφο του σπιτιού του το 1987.

Brutal și cutremurător. Obligatoriu de citit măcar la liceu pentru a înțelege coșmarul creat în timpul războiului. Îl citesc a doua oară pe Primo Levi și cred că volumul acesta de memorii, apropiat cumva de roman, e unul dintre cele mai bune și puternice pe acest subiect.

نوشته بودی چرا؟
چرایش فقط برای خودم خیلی روشن است.
شاید اگر یکروز دوباره هم را ببینیم، برایت از زندگی ام حرف بزنم. یا جرأتش را پیدا کنم برایت بنویسم. لزومی ندارد همه اش را بگویم، برای شناختن من از پاییز همان سال تا همین امسال هم کافیست. و بعد میفهمی که چرا نخواستم زنده بمانم.
.......
تاکنون کتاب‌های بسیاری درباره هولوکاست نوشته شده‌اند؛ از زندگینامه و تجربیات شخصی گرفته تا داستان‌های خیالی با محوریت  این موضوع. کتاب‌هایی مثل آیشمن در اورشلیم، دفترهای خاطرات روزانه هولوکاست، انسان در جستجوی معنا، پسری با پیژامه راه‌راه، خالکوب آشویتس، زندگی و سرنوشت، کتاب دزد، فهرست شیندرل، مرگ کسب و کار من است و... کتاب «اگر این نیز انسان» یکی از همین کتابها و حاصل تجربیات و خاطرات واقعی شیمیدان ایتالیایی_لهستانی پریمو لوی از یک سال اسارت در اردوگاه آشویتس لهستان می‌باشد.
پریمو لوی (1919-1987) شیمیدانی ایتالیایی بود که پس از دستگیری در حین فعالیت‌های چریکی در ماه فوریه 1944 بهمراه 650 نفر زن و کودک و مرد ایتالیایی دیگر ، به اردوگاه آشویتس تبعید شد. از این تعداد، در روز اول ورود، تنها 96 نفر از اتاق‌های گاز در امان ماندند و از همین تعداد هم که نامشان در اردوگاه ثبت شده بود، فقط 3 نفر تا زمان آزادی زنده ماندند.
لوی از سال 1944 تا 1945 در آشویتس بیگاری کرد تا سرانجام در ژانویه توسط ارتش سرخ شوروی آزاد شد. او به علت ابتلا به بیماری به راهپیمایی‌های مرگ (پیاده روی طولانی اسرا هنگام تخلیه اردوگاه آشویتس در زمان حمله شوروی) فرستاده نشد. زیرا نازی‌ها معتقد بودند قبل از رسیدن ارتش سرخ، لوی و دیگرانی که جا مانده‌اند، در اثر ناخوشی، سوء تغذیه و بیماری خواهند مرد.
لوی پس از بازگشت به تورین، تجربه‌اش از اردوگاه آشویتس را نوشت و در سال 1947 آن را با عنوان «اگر این نیز انسان» منتشر کرد. هرچند این کتاب در ابتدا مورد توجه زیادی قرار نگرفت، اما در سال 1958 به چاپ مجدد رسید و موفقیت آن منجر به انتشار دومین کتاب لوی در سال 1963 با عنوان «آتش‌بس» شد که توصیفی از دوران بهبودی و بازگشت او به تورین است. او به نوشتن کتاب‌ در زمینه تجربیات خود  ادامه داد و آخرین کتابش «غرق شده و نجات یافته» را در سال 1986 نوشت. کمی پس از اتمام آن کتاب، که در آن بعضی از عمیق‌ترین تحلیل‌های خودکاوانه اش از زنده ماندنش در جریان هولوکاست را نوشته بود، خودکشی کرد.
  احتمالا این سوال برای شما پیش بیاید که‌ با وجود این همه کتاب های نوشته شده و فیلم‌های ساخته شده درباره هولوکاست، چه لزومی برای خواندن «اگر این نیز انسان» هست؟ چه چیزی این کتاب را از سایر کتاب‌های با این موضوع مجزا می‌کند؟
پریمو لوی اعتراف می‌کند که زنده ماندن او در اردوگاه آشویتس چیزی جز خوش شانسی نبود؛ زیرا او درست در زمانی که نازی‌ها تصمیم گرفته بودند برای راه‌اندازی مجدد کارخانه لاستیک سازی شأن عمر مفید زندانیان را افزایش دهند، به اردوگاه فرستاده شد.
«ویکتور فرانکل» خالق کتاب «انسان در جستجوی معنا» همچون «پریمو لوی»، کتابش را بر اساس خاطرات واقعی‌اش در آشویتس نوشته است. او برای زنده ماندن در این اردوگاه، ساخت معنا را پیشنهاد می‌کند. فرانکل معتقد است که برای زنده ماندن باید روحیه خود را حفظ کرد و به تصویر آنچه که در انتظار ما است، از خوشبختی، خانواده، و آینده فکر کرد. این معنای زندگی ما است؛ یعنی دستیابی به خوشبختی، آن چیزی که پشت سر گذاشته‌ایم. اما پریمو لوی در کتاب خود معتقد است برای زنده ماندن در اردوگاه مرگ باید از یکی از این 3 کار را انتخاب کرد: 1عضو سازمان شدن، 2ترحم، 3دزدی.  پریمو لوی خود برای زنده ماندن از روش سازمان استفاده کرد زیرا او روحیه‌ای برای دزدی و چهره ای برای جلب ترحم نداشت. لوی موفق شد با همان کمترین منابعی که همچون سایر اسرا در اختیار داشت، عضویت سازمانی و ارتباطات را ایجاد کند و به منابعی دست پیدا کند که زنده ماندن او را بیشتر از زمان متوسطی که نازی‌ها تعیین کرده بودند، تضمین کند؛ یعنی چیزی بیشتر از سه ماه.
به همین دلیل می‌توان گفت که کتاب پریمو لوی مهم‌ترین کتاب در زمینه هولوکاست است. زیرا در صورت تکرار تاریخ می‌توان از آن به عنوان راهنمای عملی زنده ماندن در اردوگاه مرگ استفاده کرد.

Very well written. A recount of Life In Hell on Earth.

"Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man. In a moment, with almost prophetic intuition, the reality was revealed to us: we had reached the bottom. It is not possible to sink lower than this; no human condition is more miserable than this, nor could it conceivably be so. Nothing belongs to us any more; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find ourselves the strength to do so, to manage somehow so that behind the name something of us, of us as we were, still remains."

Primo Levi created the most magnificent, detailed and harrowing account of survival in Auschwitz. His writing style reflects the fact he is a chemist, a scientific observer of details of life, and at times can seem a bit dry, restrained and simple, yet it is perfectly compatible with the bleakness of the day-to-day life of the concentration camp.
In his own words: "I never stopped recording the world and people around me, so much that I still have an unbelievably detailed image of them. I had an intense wish to understand, I was constantly pervaded by a curiosity that somebody afterward did, in fact, deem nothing less than cynical: the curiosity of the naturalist who finds himself transplanted into an environment that is monstrous but new, monstrously new."

And as Philip Roth eloquently said; "If This Is a Man reads like the memoir of a theoretician of moral biochemistry who has himself been forcibly enlisted as the specimen organism to undergo laboratory experimentation of the most sinister kind."

But Levi also has a side of a true artist and writer, and his poetic flare and profoundness come out in the descriptions of inner states, both his own and others. His mastery is in the capability to draw the reader in, to take the reader as his companion on this journey of a nightmare, submerging a person in existential dread of this way of existence. The dark point of human history that Levi had a misfortune to live through, is described with great detail, without rationalization, romanticization, or denial.

Frankl describes hope and the silver lining of tragic experience,  Wiesel describes the anger, depression and resentment towards God, and Levi describes the indifference and apathy found in the extreme condition of dehumanization, as well as a drive to survive that some lose and some maintain, the constant oscillation between hope and despair, giving the most realistic account of the inconsistency of inner state of prisoners in camp in constant hunger, extreme coldness, extensive futile never-ending hard work and perpetual deterioration of physical and mental health. Levi described in surgical precision is how a man can be transformed or broken down and, like a substance decomposing in a chemical reaction, losing his characteristic properties by the horrendous experience, extreme trauma he is exposed to.

"To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded. Here we are, docile under your gaze; from our side you have nothing more to fear; no acts of violence, no words of defiance, not even a look of judgement."

The most horrifying thing about nazism is how calculated, structured and organized the brutality is, in cold machinery of evil and hatred, working precisely to destroy and exterminate. The most exquisite part of the novel is the scene of the execution of the rebel that tried to destroy the crematorium in Auschwitz. Here Levi has a moment of realization of his apathy and resignation and feels immense shame from the fact he has no strength left in him, no point of resistance to oppressors.

"Alberto and I went back to the hut, and we could not look each other in the face. That man must have been tough, he must have been made of another metal than us if this condition of ours, which has broken us, could not bend him. Because we also are broken, conquered: even if we know how to adapt ourselves, even if we have finally learnt how to find our food and to resist the fatigue and cold, even if we return home. We lifted the menaschka on to the bunk and divided it, we satisfied the daily ragings of hunger, and now we are oppressed by shame."

"The Russians can come now: there are no longer any strong men among us, the last one is now hanging above our heads, and as for the others, a few halters had been enough."

Levi has no denial left, he completely exposes the human nature of himself and others that managed to survive concentration camps. Survival was an immensely difficult task, one that could not leave a person morally intact. Traits that are considered to be virtues in normal circumstances, like compassion, sincerity, hard work, compliance, were serious disadvantages in concentration camps that almost certainly led to death, while manipulation, theft, deceit, exploitation, brutality were the means to an end of successful survival. Levi gives us the insight that moral compromise was necessary for a prisoner in camps to survive more than three months, the usual duration of the ordinary camp resident if he was obedient, doing all the work, and eating only the food that was given to him. In camps, the will to survive and the will to power were entangled, as power structures and hierarchy were present among the prisoners. Concentration camps we set to destroy prisoners physically, mentally but also morally and spiritually, in complete stripping one of hope, dignity, integrity and humanity.

Primo Levi is an interesting person, and after reading the book and his conversation with Philip Roth, I wanted to read more about his life. I'm planning to read the other two installments of the trilogy also. Levi was 25 years old when he was departed to camp, where we as imprisoned for one year. Before, he finished the university highly successfully, as one of the best students. His highly energetic approach to scientific endeavors was fueled by the lack of romantic and sexual experiences he longed for but did not have. He was profoundly influenced by the laws and prohibitions against Jews, as well as the bullying behavior of his classmates, which perpetuated the feeling of inadequacy and lack of confidence needed for approaching women. After his one year imprisonment in Auschwitz, Levi never quite got out of melancholy and depression, even though later on he founded a family, and had a successful career in chemistry as well as a writer. He died in unclear circumstances, from a fall down a narrow stairwell, suspected in suicidal intent.

No doubt that Levi gave an immense gift to humanity, having the courage to relive in his memoir the most horrifying experience. I believe he suffered greatly for having a such sharp intelligent mind, one that remembered in high-resolution experiences that are too inhumane to even grasp, the mind that is both highly observant and painfully honest. Levi does not shy from human nature and the truth that he found about himself and others in horrendous circumstances. He painted his survival as mere luck, but with his actions he gave the experience meaning and purpose, in sharing it with humanity, making sure that the horror of the Holocaust never is forgotten, in giving us the most detailed study of the extent of hostility and terror man can adapt to, and at what cost.

"You who live safe
In your warm houses,
You who find, returning in the evening,
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider if this is a man
Who works in the mud
Who does not know peace
Who fights for a scrap of bread
Who dies because of a yes or a no...."

There have been so many reviews written on Primo Levi’s “Survival in Auschwitz” that I have very little to add. It has been said many a time that “Survival in Auschwitz” (original title “If This is a Man”) IS THE BEST OF ALL HOLOCAUST MEMOIRS, and it may very well be. Primo Levi not only tells about his horrific experience, he also adds psychological and philosophical reflections, which make this Holocaust memoir unique.

I would like to endorse the following review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I found it to the point.

Aconteceu há tão pouco tempo mas metade do Mundo já esqueceu...

It's been some days since I last finished reading this book. It's an incredible book that's difficult to review. As the title suggests, it's the memoir of a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps.

Primo Levi was twenty five when he was arrested by Fascist Militia in Italy while in a resistance group and first taken to a detention camp, and later deported to Auschwitz. In the author's preface, Levi apologizes for the fragmentary structure of the book, an apology that he shouldn't have made because the urgency that gave rise to the structure is felt in the experiences told and the structure itself.

There's no self-flattery, even in moments when I thought there ought to have been, but instead this is an honest and bold account of one of the worst tragedies in modern times. It tells of life within the camp which is referred to as the Lager, the relationships between those who were interred, the physical and psychological toll of hard useless and senseless labour and inhumane conditions faced, as well as the constant threat of death.

In the preface Levi states:
"As an account of atrocities, therefore, this book of mine adds nothing to what is already known to readers throughout the world on the disturbing question of the death camps. It has not been written in order to formulate new accusations; it should be able, rather, to furnish documentation for a quiet study of certain aspects of the human mind. Many people – many nations – can find themselves holding, more or less wittingly, that 'every stranger is an enemy'. For the most part this conviction lies deep down like some latent infection; it betrays itself only in random, disconnected acts, and does not lie at the base of a system of reason. But when this does come about, when the unspoken dogma becomes the major premiss in a syllogism, then, at the end of the chain, there is the Lager. Here is the product of a conception of the world carried rigorously to its logical conclusion; so long as the conception subsists, the conclusion remains to threaten us. The story of the death camps should be understood by everyone as a sinister alarm-signal."

I think that should be more than enough reason for anyone to read this important book.

Σεμνός και ήρεμος τρόπος γραφής, σε σημείο σοκαριστικό.

The conviction that life has a purpose is rooted in every fibre of man, it is a property of the human substance. Free men give many names to this purpose, and think and talk a lot about its nature. But for us the question is simpler. Today, in this place, our only purpose is to reach the spring.

A famous memoir by a jewish survivor of the concentration camp, published just 2 years after the victory. It is at times raw, and at times very subdued, but always heartbreaking.

And in the midst of all the pure German evil, Levi keeps circling around the question: what does it mean to be human, to stay human; is it possible to stay human in inhuman conditions; how can you stay human when the winning strategy is to close off yourself from other people, the people you know and who are not as lucky or as strong and can die any day at the whim of a German.

Kuhn is thanking God because he has not been chosen. Does he not see Beppo the Greek in the bunk next to him, Beppo who is 20 years old and is going to the gas chamber the day after tomorrow and knows it and lies there looking fixedly at the light without saying anything and without even thinking any more? If I was God, I would spit at Kuhn’s prayer.

It's bleak, it's pessimistic, and yet humans still want to survive (I remebered the interview by a prisoner doctor from The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, where he described how he saw that his wife, kids and parents were taken away to the gas chamber after the selection on the arrival and he still in that moment wanted to live.). If an inmate is afraid to hope based on the noise of the red army approaching, the one choice that is left to everyone, the last decision a person can make and exercise their free will, that can provide some strength, the proof that they're still themselves and not completely broken down is to kill themselves. And that thought can give some solace(very similar sentiment I encountered in Stanislav Aseyev's The Torture Camp on Paradise Street)

Moreover, his capacity for hatred, unfulfilled in the direction of the oppressors, will double back, beyond all reason, on the oppressed; and he will only be satisfied when he has unloaded on to his underlings the injury received from above.
We are aware that this is very distant from the picture that is usually given of the oppressed who unite, if not in resistance, at least in suffering.

The parts that really hit me hard were unsurprisingly stories of other men who did not survive. Schmulek from Ka-Be who was selected and left Levi his spoon and knife. A very enthusiastic clumsy young Hungarian jewish Kraus, who made so many mistakes in a place where mistakes will cost you your life. Young Beppo the Greek, who was waiting for his death with no emotions left, Ziegler who insisted he was entitled for the second portion of the soup because he was selected for the gas chamber in a few days.

To think that humans are capable of this evil

Το είχα διαβάσει στην εφηβεία μου.Πιστεύω πως ό,τι συνέβη στο Άουσβιτς και στα άλλα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης είναι η μεγαλύτερη έκφανση του κακού που έχει γνωρίσει η ανθρωπότητα.

Συγκλονιστικό και τρομαχτικό...
Απλά διαβάστε το...