Every Stranger Is An Enemy Chapter Summary

I think when Primo says that “every stranger is an enemy” he is referring to a deeper instinct in the human psyche. This instinct, for lack of better words, manages to transform people in order to ensure survival. Primo is saying that every person has an inborn competitive nature that will propel them to survive even if it means breaking one’s usual moral code. Not only did this competitive element enable the Nazi regime to secure power and thus, its own survival, but it also managed to subtly persuade the prisoners of the many death camps to label fellow prisoners ‘as the enemy’. Primo presents many examples in the first 9 chapters of his fellow prisoners performing what would be usually noted as questionable acts. Particularly, chapter 8, goes into detail about the camps embedded black market and the stealing/lying that comes along with such a risky system.
It’s clear that this camp has pitted the prisoners against one another. To steal bread rations, spoons, or clothing as Levi describes, increases one’s own chances of survival. To adopt the ideology that ‘every stranger is an enemy’ might keep a person alive in such a terrible place. Levi goes on to note that this hidden beast should be suppressed, as it can lead to hatred of one’s fellow man. “… so long as the conception subsist, the conclusion remains to threaten us” (Levi 9). In a way, I think Levi is saying that there is no reason to label others as enemies by default, and when we do so we are fueling the fire of an internal beast which can (and obviously has) lead to the “demolition of man” as Levi put it on pg.