Search - Survival In Auschwitz

This is an interesting book about the experiences of a man held prisoner in a Nazi prison camp. He speaks of the hunger,the cold,and the way he carried himself through the ordeal. A good account but felt he could have described in more detail about what happened within the camp.

I started this book before i went to bed. I could not put it down. Even with the words written before me on paper I can only try to comprehend the horrors spoken of. I ended up spending most of the night reading this book and the rest thinking about what i'd just read. If one can say that everyone should read this book, then i think this is so. But i am sure that there are those who won't be able to handle the harsh truths written. I did find this book hard to put down and i am glad that i have read it.

This is a translation of Primo Levi's "Se questo è un uomo"- "If this is a man". Levi is a very erudite and poetic author, tackling some very dark subject matter, his years in Auschwitz. He shows how the Germans systematically and mercilessly reduced these prisoners (mostly Jews, but also criminals, prisoners-of-war, and others)to losing their humanity and almost becoming bestial in their fight for survival. Atrocities became commonplace, and some behaviors described are gruesome. A very illuminating and difficult book to get through, because of man's brutality towards his fellow man.