The Journey Essay

In this camp stayed many people. Most of the people in this section were considered “ill, but curable”. Due to their health conditions these people didn't work, when the others had to. The camp mainly consisted of women or other prisoners who had just been traveling in tight train cars. Many got ill after traveling for days like this.

The first quote that stands out in Primo Levi’s book is in chapter one, “The Journey”. In this chapter, Primo Levi is describing his arrival. An important quote from this chapter is when Primo Levi says “They walked in squads, in rows of three, with an odd, embarrassed step, head dangling in front, arms rigid. On their heads they wore comic berets and were all dressed in long striped overcoats, which even by night and from a distance looked filthy and in rags. They walked in a large circle around us, never drawing near, and in silence began to busy themselves with our luggage and to climb in and out of the empty wagons” (Levi 20). Primo Levi is describing his arrival at Auschwitz. The importance of this quote is of the picture Primo Levi puts in the reader’s mind. Primo Levi does a great job describing in emotional detail of what his arrival was like. In the next paragraph, Primo Levi says “We looked at each other without a word. It was all incomprehensible and mad. But one thing we had understood. This was the metamorphosis that awaited us. Tomorrow we would be like them” (Levi 21). This quote stands out because it shows the realization Primo Levi had while watching the poor, lifeless Auschwitz prisoners work. By watching the prisoners, Primo Levi had fully acknowledged that this is the life that awaits him the next day. This is important for Primo Levi because by understanding what the future holds for him in Auschwitz, he can better prepare himself for survival in Auschwitz.

In the story, the people believe that they're being sent on a vacation. They think while they're gone that the Nazis are going to rob them of their things. Little do the Jews know they are not going to be returning to their homes but that they are going to be sent to a concentration camp where they will fight to survive. This is quite the opposite of their idea of a vacation.

When the train stopped and we were expelled, I stood on the stations platform sipping the air as if I were taking a long drink. Shaking off the feeling of confinement, I felt free. Yet, I was not free, we were not free, none of us were free. What was this place I asked myself? There was nothing here but barbed wire and watch towers, snarling dogs and Nazis. It seemed as if the train had deposited all of Europe’s Jews to this same location. Are we all here to work? There were also the others, men in striped uniforms and shaved heads and sunken faces. Some of them handled the belongings we were told to leave on the platform while others yelled at us like the Nazis, ordering people here and there.

From the first few lines of the novel, it is immediately apparent that even Levi is aware of how lucky he is. He begins his book with the phrase “It was my good fortune to be deported to Auschwitz only in 1944, that is, after the German government had decided, owing to the growing scarcity of labour, to lengthen the average lifespan of the prisoners destined for elimination” (Levi 9). This means that if he was captured prior to 1944, his story may have not even been told. Life in Monowitz was certainly not easy, so one can only imagine the conditions that existed before the Nazi war machine

The prisoners in Auschwitz were treated very poorly and the world came crashing down on them even before they were brought there. When Levi was informed that he was going to be going to Auschwitz from Turin, Italy he did not know what to expect but he did not expect this. He said, "dancing before my eyes I see the spaghetti which we had just cooked, Vanda, Luciana, and I, at the sorting-camp when we suddenly heard the news that we would leave for here the following day; and were eating it and we stopped" (74). He was not aware that he would not be able to eat like this ever in the camp and was almost convinced that he would never eat like that again period. He thought about this in one of the rare moments that he had a chance to think about his past life that was very depressing for anyone to think about. They all thought they would be stuck there forever which it seemed liked already.

Tadeusz Borowski short story “Ladies and Gentlemen to the Gas Chamber”, is a compelling story based on Tadeusz Borowski own experiences at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. This horrific account at Auschwitz is described though the eyes of a narrator and Henri, one of the forced residents of Auschwitz from Poland. Through the story we see that the narrator and Henri do whatever it takes in order to survive and live a decent life while they are forced to stay at Auschwitz.

By using the first-person present tense—I am here; you are not—and guarding specific scenes and emotions, Levi actively distances readers from his narrative. This, the book tells its readers, is not your narrative; you are not characters in this story. As readers, we are forced to recognize that we do not speak Levi’s language; we do not know what it truly means to be “cold,”

The survivors were so used to living and sleeping with corpses that they too felt that their own soul was no longer with them. It was very difficult for Jews to recuperate from the racial purification attempts of the Holocaust, but those who showed hope and perseverance through theses grueling times were able to regain their life and self worth. Throughout Levi’s reawakening, he met very extraordinary people, many of whom are survivors of the Holocaust just like him. These people can be seen as a symbol in Levi’s reawakening helping him establish new life after liberation. Jews are deeply hated amongst the European nation and Levi encounters three authority figures they guide him with rules that he must abide in order to escape detestation. During a walk along the churches of Cracow, Levi came across the first authority figure, a priest. They carried the most “extravagant and chaotic conversation in Latin.” (Levi, 50) At the end of their encounter the priest advises Levi not to speak German in public. The second authority figure that Levi encountered was a lawyer traveling through Treblinka. He was a Polish man but he could speak German as well. Like the priest, he also advised Levi not to speak German in public. A police officer, the third figure of authority in Levi’s reawakening, showed compassion towards Levi and offered him “a night in warmth, in jail.”

As the world around the authors begins to collapse, they are faced with evil and the uncertainty of whether to face the events with optimism or pessimism. Levi begins his experience on a more negative note as he describes what it's like to be on the bottom. “I have learnt that I am haftling. My number is 174517,” (page 27). Levi has lost hope in his own identity. He isn't optimistic or pessimistic, he is indifferent because he feels he is no longer a man, but a property of the Nazis. Levi also demonstrates negativity during his stay at Ka-Be. As he sits and watches the Jews do their usual morning ritual and march he describes how the Germans

Primo Levi began the memoir Survival in Auschwitz with the words, “It seems unnecessary to me to add that none of the facts are invented” to insist his truthfulness. Levi wanted to give an eyewitness account of this horrific moment in the human history . He insist his truthfulness by using a unemotional tone and detachment to report the facts in the role of an observer . no other make up stories are needed to add into this memoir. Levi was demoralized and had stopped feeling the need to keep himself clean because the water and wash basin were filthy and dirty . His friend Steinlauf reminds him that they must not lose their dignity because of the conditions they find themselves in, but fight to survive even in this

Survival in Auschwitz tells of the horrifying and inhuman conditions of life in the Auschwitz death camp as personally witnessed and experienced by the author, Primo Levi. Levi is an Italian Jew and chemist, who at the age of twenty-five, was arrested with an Italian resistance group and sent to the Nazi Auschwitz death camp in Poland in the end of 1943. For ten terrible months, Levi endured the cruel and inhuman death camp where men slaved away until it was time for them to die. Levi thoroughly presents the hopeless existence of the prisoners in Auschwitz, whose most basic human rights were stripped away, when in Chapter 2 he states, "Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits,

Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of the concentration camps and their mental tool. Over the course of Night, Wiesel demonstrates, that exposure to an uncaring, hostile world leads to destruction of faith and identity.

The Holocaust is an unforgettable event to anyone who had to live through the horrors of a concentration camp. Elie Wiesel is no exception. He was taken to a concentration camp in 1944 and lost his mother and father in the concentration camps. Mr. Wiesel was brave enough to step forward and share his experiences during the Holocaust, which he recorded in his book Night. In his book Night, Elie Wiesel uses irony, foreshadowing, and tone to describe the uncertainty of one’s future before going and while in a concentration camp.

In the memoir If This Is A Man Primo Levi offers an insight into his life during the brutal and inhuman acts inflicted upon the Jews by the SS Soldiers during the Holocaust. Levi tells the story of his experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and the divisions between his fellow haftlinge and the German soldiers due to the significant differences between language and culture. The results of extreme anti-Semitism led to the dehumanisation and de-socialization of the prisoners, who often had limited understanding of the soldiers’ intentions. Further, the prisoners were largely segregated due to the diverse nationalities, religions, and ethnicities. The prisoners were stripped of all possessions and their loved ones, though one facet that