Survival in Auschwitz
Survival in Auschwitz is full of little portraits of people Levi encounters during his internment at Auschwitz. Many different experiences with these individuals reveal a process of the inner human nature of survival. ... But the overall premise behind the holocaust was survival. Survival in Auschwitz deposits us in a world where the typical conviviality that makes human society bearable has been eliminated and replaced by a horrible premise of death looming over ones shoulder at ever turn of an emaciated life behind electric fences. ... Nevertheless, as do so many other prisoners at Auschwitz, Schepschel risks harsh punishment to steal a broom to give to the Blockaltester in return for bread rationing. ... But the death camps are not civil society and even then there is a line that should not be crossed within human dignity; to partake in an activity that is bound to desecrate another human being in hopes of personal gain Levi views this as dubious and blind of remorse and is unacceptable even in the hopes of human survival. ... Eloquently enough we must presuppose that this “inequality” is taking place behind barbed wires and smoke stacks of human ash; this just being another comparison as well that inequality exists everywhere even at a death camp in Auschwitz. ... Levi, throughout his work Survival in Auschwitz, consistently questions the human aspect among his fellow inmates after analyzing their personal stories.