Primo Levi And The Nazi War - 2447 Words

Primo Levi or as the Nazi’s renamed him, 174517, was 25 when the Italian fascist captured him leading to his 11 months in Auschwitz. 174517 became his new way of identifying himself because it was believed only a man is worthy of a name. Its sad to say that the acts of genocide that was committed toward these people like Primo Levi, was not common in this time period. There were hundreds of different ghettos that people were sent to, unfortunately in Primo’s case, he got sent to the most devastating one of all, Auschwitz. Auschwitz opened in 1940 and was the largest of all the Nazi’s concentration and death camps. There were from 2.1 to 2.4 million people killed there. As Primo stated, in this camp they were only fed 4 rations of bread,†¦show more content†¦Survival in Auschwitz is the first hand account of Primo’s struggle to maintain a sense of humanity when his surroundings are trying to do the opposite. There are so many different themes a rea der can take from Levi’s autobiography but the theme that stands out to me the most is war. For Primo, the war never ended- after being liberated by the Russians, he continues to battle a psychological war that originated from his time in Auschwitz, leading to the transition into his other book The Reawakening, an account of his life after Auschwitz. A soldier can be described as always fighting a war- an external one to protect their country and an internal one to preserve their sanity. Throughout the movies American Sniper and Hurt Locker, the theme of a continuous war is emphasized- even when a soldier is home; they are still fighting a battle. However, instead of fighting against foreign enemies, the enemy becomes their own selves within their own home grounds as they struggle to readjust to life outside of war. War leads to an internal psychological battle that extends to one’s home life. After Primo was freed, he was never able to experience the true feeling of freedom due to his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Shortly following his release, Primo constantly stared at the ground as if he were still in Auschwitz, looking for scraps of food. He did not