Is that a human

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Is that a human ( Se questo è un uomo ) is Primo Levi's (1919–1987) autobiographical report on his eleven-month forced stay in Auschwitz III Monowitz (1944–45), from which he was one of the few survivors to be freed. The book was written between 1945 and 1947. The factuality of the report, in which both judgments and explicit expressions of feeling are dispensed with, distinguish the work from other autobiographical Holocaust novels .

Origin and development

Levi said he wrote the book out of a pressing inner impulse. He was not interested in any kind of retaliation: rather, he felt the need to pass on his experience so that others could participate in his fate. The first drafts arose from this first impulse, and over time a second urge developed: Levi gradually noticed the need not only to describe what he had experienced, but also to understand it. This second need gradually gave rise to new, expanded versions of the text.

After a barely noticed publication in 1947 by the small Turin publishing house Francesco De Silva, a new edition in 1958 at Einaudi was a success. The book has been translated into many languages. Levi was strongly influenced by his experiences in Auschwitz. The writing process therefore continued: In 1962 La tregua , the respite , was created; the novel describes the long time between the liberation of Auschwitz and his return home. In 1986 Levi's work I sommersi ei Salvati ( Eng . The Drowned and the Rescued ) was created, which again took up the subject of the concentration camp.

subjects

Levi alternates his experience report with text passages that describe life in the camp mostly analytically: The aim is to explain the prisoners' group dynamics from a more objective, almost scientific perspective. A main role is played by the question of the skills and the cheats that are absolutely necessary in order for an inmate to have at least one chance of survival in the medium term. Furthermore, the changes in the prisoners after internment are explicitly pointed out: the struggle for survival means that some fundamental ethical principles have to be temporarily eliminated.

The description of the linguistic landscape in Auschwitz, which is compared with the Tower of Babel , is also of great importance . The prisoners form a linguistically diverse society; In addition to the individual languages ​​of the prisoners, an important camp jargon has developed that serves as a means of intercultural communication and whose words describe life in the camp graphically.

content

The plot is not strictly based on the chronological order of events. Levi expressly emphasizes that he did not make up anything of the events described.

The narrator's journey begins in the Fossoli transit camp . The prisoners are stacked from there under inhumane conditions in the carriages of a train and the German Reich deported . Many of them die in transit.

At Auschwitz, Levi did not initially know that the other inmates could tell his arrival time and his origin from the tattooed number he was wearing. The newcomer will have to understand that such a number allows for further interpretations: since he is inmate number 174,517, but the camp only has a few tens of thousands of places, it should be obvious that most of the people who were in this concentration camp , have already been murdered or otherwise died: This is explained to Primo by a group of Jews. These prisoners do not hide a certain disregard for Levi, since he is "only" an Italian Jew and therefore does not speak their language, Yiddish .

The newcomer has to learn new, vital rules far too quickly: You shouldn't ask questions, but pretend you've understood everything; the extreme importance of mundane objects such as shoes and spoons must never be underestimated, otherwise death will quickly draw near.

There is no lack of isolated examples of solidarity in the camp: Primo's physique is often hopelessly overwhelmed, but inmate Resnyk supports him in the hard work that he initially has to do. There are (seldom) days when there is enough to eat. Such experiences have a depressing effect on the prisoners: once they are full, the appearance of normality reminds the prisoners of the years they spent at home and thus of thoughts that they normally have to suppress in everyday life .

There are a number of scarce goods such as B. Fabric: That is why rags are removed from prisoners ' coats before the day of the “laundry change” in order to use the material for other purposes (e.g. as a bandage). In order to avoid this as much as possible, the authorities collect this laundry at very irregular intervals in order to repair and disinfect it. Instead of money, fabric is used as a barter commodity on the black market: If one suspects for any reason that a laundry trade will soon take place, the price of fabrics on the black market will soon collapse, which often gives rise to worries and speculation.

The description of the careers of three fellow sufferers in Auschwitz shows the factors that can make the difference between life and death. The exemplary way of dying is easy to explain: those who obey the official rules will soon die of starvation or exhaustion; such people, who are destined to disappear soon, are called Muselmen . Those who want to survive, on the other hand, have to bypass the rules or get a place in the sun, e. B. by being appointed Kapo or otherwise given a special assignment. Such a lot of all things saves the young Levi, who is later allowed to work in the laboratory as a qualified chemist, which most likely saves him from the tragic fate of a Muselmann . What tasks Levi has to do in the chemistry laboratory is not revealed.

A kind of diary serves as the final chapter. Germany will soon be occupied by enemy forces. The arrival of the Red Army , which had been predicted again and again in what was felt to be a very far future, is approaching head over heels. That is why the Nazis want to evacuate the concentration camp and deploy the workforce that can still be used elsewhere. This is how a move is organized for these prisoners. Primo does not yet know that almost all of these fellow sufferers will be killed during the death march they face . However, there will only be a rescue for those people who cannot be evacuated. This is the case with Primo, because that day he is still admitted to the infirmary because of scarlet fever and cannot move with him. The prisoners remaining in Auschwitz help each other as much as they can and experience the liberation by the Soviets on January 27, 1945.

Reception and Levi's statements about the novel

Levi's novel met with a wide response: He was often asked questions on which he also commented publicly:

  • Readers asked why Levi refrained from making any judgments in the book. Indeed, there is little hatred of its tormentors in the novel. Levi justified his choice with an attempt to stick to a rational approach: It is ultimately up to the reader to form their own judgment. In a letter to the translator of the first German edition, he also stated that he felt no hatred of the Germans. He could still not understand the people: But for this very reason he hoped for feedback from German readers.
  • The author was also asked about the causes of National Socialist anti-Semitism , as this question is not raised in the novel. He then said that such a kind of racism should be seen in a broader context: In his opinion, it is generally about hostility towards those who are different, a hostility that could otherwise arise again and again.

Today the work is considered a classic of world literature. It was included in the list of the hundred books of the century in the daily newspaper Le Monde or in the book of 1000 books .

Relation to other literary texts

Is that a human contains some conscious references to classical works of world literature.

  • The chapter Al di qua del bene e del male ( This side of good and evil ) is an allusion to the work Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche . Levi differentiates himself from Nietzsche by depicting humans in their wretched condition.
  • Numerous references are made to Dante's Divina Commedia . The writing above the entrance gate - work makes you free - is compared, for example, with the inscription on the gate to hell: Per me si va ne la città dolente, per me si va ne l'etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente ( Through me - that is, through this door - one goes in to the city of mourning, through me one goes in to eternal pain, through me one goes to the lost people ). The trip to Auschwitz is thus linked to the literary motif of the “Journey into the Hereafter”.
  • Still in connection with the Divine Comedy , the infirmary where Levi is temporarily admitted (the Ka-Be ) is compared to limbo. So it is about the part of hell ( limbus ) where neither good nor bad prevails. The narrator, who temporarily does not have to work, finds a respite in the infirmary.

German-language editions

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo , Einaudi scuola, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-286-0325-9 , introduction, page XIII.
  2. ↑ Maike Albath writes more details about this publication history in her detailed biographical afterword to Primo Levi, Ich, der ich spreche zu dich. A conversation with Giovanni Tesio , Zurich 2017, pp. 140ff. (also online: [1] , p. 11f.).
  3. ↑ Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo , Einaudi scuola, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-286-0325-9 , chapter "I sommersi ei salvati", page 92.
  4. ↑ Cesare Segre, untitled. In: Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo , Einaudi scuola, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-286-0325-9 , introduction, page 191.
  5. ↑ Primo Levi, 1976. In: Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo / La tregua , Tascabili Einaudi, Turin, 1989, ISBN 88-06-11605-3 , appendix (question 1).
  6. ↑ Primo Levi, 1976. In: Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo / La tregua , Tascabili Einaudi, Turin, 1989, ISBN 88-06-11605-3 , appendix (question 7).
  7. ↑ Le Monde , October 15, 1999.
  8. ↑ Lorenzo Mondo, untitled. In: Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo, Einaudi scuola, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-286-0325-9 , introduction, page 195.