Beklager den på forhånd lange tekst. Det giver ikke rigtigt mening at reducere denne bog til stjerner.

Primo Levis oplevelser i Auschwitz er gruopvækkende. Og her er det beskrevet i en grad der har påvirket mig som sjælendt før. Den skal læses - særligt i en tid hvor erindringen om KZ og nazisternes forbrydelser bliver svagere, og udfordres, eller relativiseres, af en stigende konspiratorisk antisemitisme.

Bogen er rekreativt kort, men alligevel fyldt med indsigtsfulde beskrivelser af mennesketyper der kan overleve og dem der ikke kan, forskellige folkeslag, sprogudfordringer af babelsk karakter og en utrolig interessant beskrivelse af den innovative mikroøkonomi i en koncentrationslejr.
Desuden er der også tanker om livet og menneskets natur. Passager der grundet Primo Levis forfærdelige oplevelser er befriet fra filosofiens spekulative forestillinger om livets karakter i yderste konsekvens. Et eksempel kunne være denne:
“Før eller senere i livet opdager alle at den rene lykke ikke eksisterer, men kun få standser for at tænke over set modsatte: at det gør den rene ulykke heller ikke. Menneskets indbyggede protest mod alt hvad der er uendeligt holder disse ekstreme sindstilstande på afstand. Vores evigt utilstrækkelige kendskab til fremtiden protesterer, og det kalder man i én situation håb, i en anden usikkerhed over for morgendagen.”
Der leder til Primo Levi i den isnende regn og kulde, trods forfærdelige anstrengelser ikke springer i det elektriske hegn - for tænk sig hvis der straks efter stopper med at regne.

Håber I vil læse bogen og diskutere den med jeres venner.

Also The Truce which was in the same volume. I had heard of this book and went to some trouble to obtain it for the Buddy Challenge, but did not make the group to read it and decided to read it anyway after the glowing reviews that had been posted. I am so pleased that I did. This absolutely belongs in the List and needs to be read by everyone. As Levi, himself, said, in answer to questions about these books..."I prefer the role of witness to that of judge. I can bear witness only to the things which I myself endured and saw. My books are not history books. In writing them I have limited myself strictly to reporting facts of which I had direct experience..." It is his spare, beautiful prose which describes his experience without emotional overlays which stuns the reader. He said that he would probably have been an anonymous chemist who never wrote, if it had not been for his experience in the extermination camp of Monowitz, close to Auschwitz. He felt he had to bear witness to what happened there. The Truce describes the torturous months after liberation, where he was taken by train to Russia, and then, months later transported painfully slowly by train back to Turin. He was an excellent observer and the characters are easily imagined from his wonderful descriptions. Highly recommended.

Διάβασα μόνο το "If this is a man/Εάν αυτό είναι ο ανθρωπος". Το βρήκα εξαιρετικό. Γραμμένο με σκοπό να ενημερώσει, να μιλήσει στον αναγνώστη για την ζωή στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρ��σης και όχι για να σοκάρει και να κερδίσει την συμπάθεια μας. Η γραφή είναι πολύ καλή, βρισκεις συχνά λυρικές προτάσεις κρυμμένες μέσα σε παραδοσιακά γραμμένες παραγράφους.

Συμπάθησα πολύ τον συγγραφέα. Μου άρεσε πολύ η στάση του να δικαιολογεί κάποιες πράξεις των φυλακισμένων λέγοντας πολύ σοφα πως κανεις δεν μπορεί να μιλήσει για ηθικες πράξεις στην αντίθετη πλευρά του συρματος.

Το προτείνω.

I don`t really think that anything I could say could ever do justice to this book. Peoples` spirit and will to survive in the face of the most awful atocities never ceases to amaze me.

This is a powerful story of Primo Levi who was imprisoned in Auschwitz. I’m giving it 3 stars, since I felt that his writing style was confusing and tedious.

I believe that this is the first holocaust account that I have read that has been written from an objective, rather detached and unemotional point of view, or at least the first that I can remember. I know that if I had gone through all those horrors, there is no way in God’s green earth that I could have felt the same way. No way.

Some of my favorite quotes:
"One of the most important things I had learnt in Auschwitz was that one must always avoid being a nobody. All roads are closed to a person who appears to be useless, all are open to a person who has a function, even the most fatuous."

“I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man.”

Somehow my review ended up as a comment - I must have hit the wrong button.
Essential reading.

I was bought this as a Christmas present from a friend and was told simply: "No one should go on without heaving read this book". Now, I've read a few books on concentration camps (and have also visited Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland) and wasn't convinced that another account of this atrocity should be on my 'to read' list.

I did, however, give it a go and I'm so glad I did. From start to finish Primo kept me drawn in by his fantastic use of language and the way he can put a very human face to a very inhuman act. He clearly shows that what happened was evil without having to resort to describing the brutalities and dark goings-on of that period at that place. It's more a document of the society that formed within the camps, the everyday lives of the people there and an almost humorous look into the psychology of the inmates.

The second half of the book: The Truce, is a tale of the liberation of the camps by the Russians and his journey back to Italy. This part is just as compelling as the first with the same running theme, a man trying to find his way whilst being bombarded with obsticles at every corner. It's fasinating to read how he managed to find shelter in the most unlikely of places, and how he would bargain his clothes for a chicken in villages he stumbles upon.

The greatest feat that Levi achieves is to allow the reader to relate to situations that occur, even though the subject matter isn't anywhere near as awful as it is in this book.

To say 'this book changed my life' is a cliche that I, myself, hate just as much as everyone else, but I can't think of any other appropriate phrase to sum up this book. To quote my friend: "No one should go on without having read this book".

The second or third or fourth time I have read it. One of the most important works of the 20th century. Still stunned by how people keep on going, in the face of a bottomless abyss. Exhilarating, inspirational, full of an unfathomable spirit.

An extraordinary witness to events and sharing of observations of humankind without judgement or condemnation. An important narrative that reminds us to continue and perhaps forever pay close attention to whom we support, for it is not true that we learn from the mistakes of others, we must be wary of in whom we place our trust and bestow leadership.

My complete review here at Word by Word.

Here is one of the most important books I have ever read. Philip Roth called Primo Levi “a magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I’ve ever known”. Roth, as many others, including myself, truly admired the strength and composure Primo Levi possessed to write his recollections of his time being a prisoner at Auschwitz. Although he lived in hell, meters away from gas chambers, and witnessed a growing decay of humanity, Primo Levi never reduced to hatred. On this particular matter he says:”I believe in reason and in discussion as supreme instruments of progress, and therefore I repress hatred even within myself: I prefer justice. Precisely for this reason, when describing the tragic world of Auschwitz, I have deliberately assumed the calm, sober language of the witness, neither the lamenting tones of the victim nor the irate voice of someone who seeks revenge”. You will rarely hear me say that, but this book I consider a must. Perhaps the only thing we could all do for the undeserved sufferings of the accused, tortured and murdered victims of the Holocaust is to read their stories, to become familiar with the possibility of human evil and avoid it at any cost.
“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 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."

“Imagine how a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself. He will be a man whose life or death can be lightly decided with no sense of human affinity, in the most fortunate of cases, on the basis of pure judgement of utility. It is in this way that one can understand the double sense of the term ‘extermination camp’, and it is now clear what we seek to express with the phrase: ‘to lie on the bottom’. “

L'orrore quotidiano nel famigerato lager di Auschwitz con le giornaliere violenze fisiche e morali, il lavoro spossante, le "selezioni" per la "soluzione definitiva", narrato da chi ci ha trascorso un anno, vivendo quotidianamente accanto alla morte fisica, morale e sociale. E' davvero difficile trovare le parole per descrivere quello che ho provato leggendo questo libro toccante scritto all'indomani della liberazione del protagonista e che ha già emozionato, indignato, turbato tanti lettori prima di me e assurgendo a testimonial di un passato che non deve essere dimenticato, perchè quell'orrore non si ripeta mai più

Impressive recount of a Jewish prisoner's days in Auschwitz and his journey home. I liked the dry, observant style. The author does not show hate for his tortures, just describes the facts. The reader is the judge.

The passage which made the biggest impression on me is where Levi talks about the camp musicians, playing the same songs everyday when the slaves go out to and come back from work. Levi writes that even years later, hearing these innocent songs made the blood freeze in the bodies of the survivors.

To me that is a great example of the relativity of life. The song in itself is not evil, the composer is not evil, even the musicians playing the songs in the camp are not evil. But still all the lingering horrors of the camp will be connected to and unleashed by a simple, harmless melody.