Survival in Auschwitz

by Primo Levi

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 judgment.

He threw a French novel on my bed. “Keep it, read it, Italian. You can give it back to me when we meet again.” Even today I hate him for those words. He knew that we were doomed.

Almost in their entirety they vanished during the evacuation march: Alberto was among them. Perhaps someone will write their story one day.

Only a day before a similar event would have been inconceivable. The law of the Lager said: “eat your own bread, and if you can, that of your neighbor,” and left no room for gratitude. It really meant that the Lager was dead. It was the first human gesture that occurred among us. I believe that that moment can be dated as the beginning of the change by which we who had not died slowly changed from Häftlinge to men again.