Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz was only one of his efforts to recount the events of the Holocaust in an honest and sensitive way without distorting facts and meanings due to his own subjective memories. In his book, originally called Is This a Man?, Levi used literary devices and poetry in particular, to express the universal, history the particular (Ten.) The way that Levi used language was to employ metaphors, allusions, and absurdity to describe the horrors of his experience in the concentration camp before the liberation in 1945. This paper will discuss Primo Levi’s use of literature and language to portray his ability to survive in this iconic work, which was followed by the sad irony of his suicide.
The way that Primo Levi utilizes language suggests that the horrors of the Holocaust are actually universal, despite the fact that the Holocaust itself was very specific to its victims as well as its survivors. His recounting is revealing in that certain aspects of the behavior experienced and meted out during the Holocaust are universal parts of humanity that persist between countries and over generations, no matter what time period or geographical location. One of the most obvious recurring literary devices used by Levi throughout the book is the including of a variety of European languages that were used inside of the concentration camps, most of them appearing with little if any translation. He changes from his native Italian language to use phrases that come from the German, Polish, French, and Yiddish languages, letting the readers know that in Auschwitz, unless a person was German, his or her national origin would not provide any protection. The experience and successes of each prisoner were completely erased when they arrived at the camp; indeed, they were no longer regarded as human, so that no prisoner had a past or a life that had existed prior to coming to the camp. Because there was no mutual language, there was a great deal of ostracizing and isolation as well as danger, leading sometimes to become matters of life or death. Levi writes, “the confusion of languages is a fundamental component of the manner of living here: one is surrounded by a perpetual Babel, in which everyone shouts orders and threats in languages never heard before, and woe betide whoever fails to grasp the meaning” (Levi, 38.)
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Because languages appear with little or no translation, readers are able to view things through Levi’s eyes while he was at Auschwitz, experiencing his feeling of bewilderment as well as exclusion; in addition, the reader is able to completely comprehend the absence of human connection resulting from the lack of a common language. There is a parallel process occurring, as the reader is unable to understand a great deal of what is being spoken, the same way that Levi was unable to comprehend what was being said. At the same time, there are times when this same literary device also demonstrates instances of profound human attachment, when, for example, the use of the word “bread” in every language instantly becomes a synonym for the word “life.” Levi allows the reader to join him in the horrendous environment of the Holocaust through his use of language, and causes his experience to become accessible to all by interspersing universal truths among his own stories and accounts (Ten.)
Primo Levi took on the challenge of surviving to tell the story of the Holocaust and assuming the difficult job of convincing the rest of the world that what he had witnessed was real. In order to accomplish this, the language that he used in his book was clear and detached in his presentation of the facts; he believed that if he had appealed to emotions, he would have compromise the solemnity of the enormous task that he was undertaking (Patruno.) However, he also needed to be absolutely clear, and the language that he uses in the book is concise, sober, and lean, reflecting a person with a mind that was driven by reason and logic as well as civility. His approach is dispassionate, reflecting his past scientific education as a chemist, so that although he refrain from using emotionalism, he allows his readers to experience their own emotional responses. His writing is remarkably free of hatred or a desire for revenge, and he does not try to precipitate such reactions from his audience. In this way, he actually respects the intellectual abilities of his readers, since he does not take the opportunity to instruct them about how to feel, but rather allows them the freedom to arrive at their own emotional reactions.
From the beginning of the work, Levi’s use of language to denote the victim’s experiences includes silence, the lack of language which becomes a powerful way to communicate as well. For example, after the group departs from an Italian camp, “we passed the Brenner… And everybody stood up, but no one said a word” (Levi, 13.) When the group enters German-speaking territory, there is also silence, stemming from a reaction of shock which later becomes an error of resignation (Girelli-Carasi.) Upon the arrival at the Auschwitz platform, silence also pervades the scene, as is a means to ward off the ominous, obvious and inescapable danger that awaits them. “In a moment the platform was swarming with shadows… But we were afraid to break the silence” (Levi, 15.) By avoiding the cognitive uses of language and the danger associated with considering the future in combination with the complete unpredictability of what is going to happen, the glimpse of this new reality forces the victims’ language into a defensive position, ranging from silence to passive acquiescence (Girelli-Carasi.) The fact of the current situation causes the deportees to resort to silence when they are forced to become part of the world that belongs to those who speak only a corrupt language. The silence becomes a weapon of sorts, the only way that the prisoners had to resist or reject the language of their captors.
When the prisoners begin to try to reestablish communication amongst themselves, silence becomes imposed forcefully from the external forces, the Germans. When the Jews are waiting for their first shower, Levi writes, “we walk up and down without sense, and we talk, everyone talks to everyone else, we make a great noise. The door opens, and a German enters: it is the officer of before. He speaks briefly, the interpreter translates. “The officer says you must be quiet, because this is not a rabbinical school” (Levi, 20.) Accompanying the prohibition against speaking is the inability of the prisoners to be heard, the disdainful disregard of the oppressors who totally ignore the existence of the prisoners as human beings as expressed with words (Girelli-Carasi.)
Primo Levi uses a poetic form of prose to inform his readers about the ways that Jews were treated by Germans and the other people in charge of the camp. He also uses history at certain points in the book to refer to fact and myth so that readers can have certain points of reference in order to comprehend specific incidents and emotions. For example, when Levi is standing before a doctor to perform the chemical examination, he remarks that he feels like Oedipus in front of the Sphinx (Ten.) At other points, he makes references to Dante’s Inferno, such as when at one point he compares Alex to the devils of Malabolge, and continues to write about this in great detail in ch. 11: the Canto of Ulysses, where he extends the metaphor of Auschwitz as hell and the prisoners as dead or dying souls (Ten.) All of these literary devices have the same goal: providing a clear understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust from the point of view of the survivor, and creating a more interactive version of its history. His references from the Bible as well as classical mythology are used for emphasis, and have the effect of putting the story on the same level as those that recounted the activities of ancient civilizations that are gone but memorialized through eternity. Such should be the telling of Primo Levi’s experience of the Holocaust. He used irony throughout the memoir, a vital part of its power to engage and speak to readers when he wrote the book and for generations in the future. Because Levi excludes sentimentality or guilt inspiring accusations in his telling of the Holocaust, he demonstrates a respect for the intellect of his readers and their capacity for compassion. The language that he uses highlights the absurdity of the situation at many points, and that is the way that he presents the powerful, horrifying situation, rather than simply spelling it out for the reader.
- Girelli-Carasi, Fazio. The Anti-Linguistic Nature of the Lager in the Language of Primo Levi’s Se questo è un uomo. n.d. Web. 19 October 2014.
- Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Orion Press, 1959. Print.
- Patruno, Nicholas. “Primo Levi: Surviving the Holocaust.” n.d. Bryn Mawr.edu. Web. 19 October 2014.
- Ten, Kristina. “Primo Levi’s Use of Poetic Language to Promote Cross-Cultural Understanding in “Survival in Auschwitz”.” 2014. Student Pulse.com. Web. 19 October 2014.
