Survival In Auschwitz Meaning
Death, fear, annihilation, hunger, revenge, hate, what do all these things have in common? The answer is rather simple: World War II. While this bloody conflict can be characterized by a variety of acts, both evil and honorary, the focus here, will be on the depraved nature of Hitler’s death camps. After reading Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi, I was a Doctor in Auschwitz by Gisella Perl, and This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski, one can begin the interpret the true meaning of the age ole phrase “Hell on Earth.” In the following pages, these three stories will be reviewed, and hopefully, by the end of this essay, all readers will understand why such an act can never happen again. First, this analysis will begin by taking a look at the the work of Primo Levi. In Survival in Auschwitz, the reader is thrown into the world of Primo Levi, a 24 year-old Italian chemist, and Jew, who has run away from home, and is captured by the Fascist party of Italy. Following his capture, Levi is placed in a detention camp. The camp is full of a variety of people including, Jews, POW’s, and anti-fascist; enemies of the state. After a couple of weeks, in the camp, Levi, and all other Jews, are jammed into a train on their way to Auschwitz,
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which at that time, to him was just “a name without significance…” As soon as the train ride began, so did the suffering. As many as 640 men were crammed into 12 wagons, and in Levi’s small wagon alone, there were 45 men. These beings were deprived of food, water, and space. They remained packed together among their feces, and eventually, corpses. Nobody from the outside world was allowed to approach the wagons, and many of those inside, began to fight amongst themselves for what little space they had. The cold weather also fell upon them ferociously. When Levi and the other arrivals finally exited the wagons, they were immediately greeted by a group of German SS troops. They were stripped of all their belongings and directed in two different directions based on whether they were healthy or not. One way led to the crematory; the other led to the death camps. In a couple minutes time, all those deemed fit were were separated from the weak, and what became of the others, no one really new. Levi was deemed fit, and as such, was directed to a camp called Buna, where he is shamed and made to suffer a bit more, before eventually being tattooed with the number 174517. That number became his new name. In the beginning, Levi is shunned for being a newbie, but as days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, he begins to grasp the unwritten rules of the camp. Levi quickly learns that food also serves as currency. Also, the numbers tattooed on the inmates said a lot about them, “The period of entry into the camp, the convoy of witch one formed a part, and consequently the nationality.” Those with low number tattoos were old prisoners and were respected; those with high numbers were new prisoners, and were generally disregarded. Asking questions is also taboo. The work that was forced upon the prisoners was quite harsh. Levi, specifically, is forced to push heavy wagons in the harsh cold and shovel day after day. After days of hard labor, one day Levi is injured on the job, and is interned in the infirmary, also known as the Ka-Be. The rules for this place are quite simple, “Those who signs of improvement are cured in the Ka-Be, those who seem to get worse are sent from the Ka-Be to the gas chambers.” Following 20 days of rest, Levi is once again thrust into the the jungle that is the lager, or camp. Fortunately for Levi, he gets thrown into Block 45, where Alberto, his good friend, resides.
For some time, the days at the camp continue as usual, inmates eat, shower, work (brutally), are shaved, and the cycle repeats. As for Levi, he became part a new group known as the Chemical Kammando, a squad made up of skilled chemical workers. Instead of getting a lighter workload and better working conditions, as is customary for skilled workers, Levi’s workload, unfortunately, became a lot harsher. It was an huge disappointment for Levi, and his will to continue living, began to fade. Fortunately, it was around this gloomy time period that Levi met Lorenzo, a civilian (non-Jewish) worker. As a civilian worker, Lorenzo was given way better work conditions and for no apparent reason, he shared his prosperity with Levi by giving him extra bread and other useful supplies in exchange for nothing, something which in the death camp was unheard of. Lorenzo even went so far as to send mail back to Italy for Levi. For Levi, “Lorenzo was a man; his humanity was pure and uncontaminated, he was outside this world of netiation. Thanks to Lorenzo, I managed not to forget that I myself was a man.” Thanks to Lorenzo, Levi was once again eager to live. After a while, Levi finally gets good news. He will become a specialist in the Chemical Kammando. As a specialist, he is given way better work treatment, and better yet, access to a laboratory, from which he can easily steal supplies. The stolen good are used for trading purposes, in order for Levi to improve his living conditions. Unfortunately, (or not) for Levi, just as things began to look up, he is once again forced to make a trip to he Ka-Be, this time for scarlet fever. As fate would have it, the year was 1945 and the war in Europe was coming to an end. For the Germans in Auschwitz and all others who were able to move, this meant it was time to evacuate. Levi, feeling the effects of the fever was incapable of marching to a new location, where ever that may have been. All those who could not march were left behind. In the days following the evacuation, water and heating to the camp were cut off. For Levi and his group of left over ill prisoners, this meant that in order to survive, they had to scavenge the camp. Luckily for them, there were no guards or figures of authority (they evacuated) to prevent them wandering about. They continued this agenda until January 27, 1945 when they were finally liberated by the Russians. The next story, I was a Doctor in Auschwitz, by Grisella Perl, is just what it sounds like. It is the story of Grisella Perl, a Hungarian doctor from Sighet, who was captured by the Nazis. By order of Dr. Josef Mengele, she was forced to become a doctor in Auschwitz, with only the most primitive of medical instruments. Perl lived a relatively normal life before her capture, but once she was in, her life changed forever. In Auschwitz, Dr. Perl learned what it meant to suffer, to hurt, and to feel hungry. As she put it, “the great writer who could describe the hunger we had to endure at Auschwitz has yet to be born.” Even as a Doctor, Perl had too fend for herself among the masses of thousands just like her. A mile stone for her came when she acquired her first pair of shoes after two months in the camp barefoot, but there was one problem, they were to big, and so she desperately needed shoe strings. In her pursuit of string, Perl came across a man from the men’s block who happened to have just what she needed. The man was willing to give up his string, but he did not want Perl’s bread (in exchange), instead he he asked for sex. Dr. Perl vehemently rejected such an offer. Instead she ran to her bunk, where she immediately broke down. Fortunately, this experience was no enough to keep Perl down, instead it only made her stronger. As she put it, “ I was going to remain a human being to the last minute of my life – whenever that would come.” For a while, Dr. Perl remain strong, but her next big test soon made its way to her. One day, after the usual roll call, the healthiest women where chosen among the prisoners and taken away. It was circulated that they were taken somewhere good, but Dr. Perl soon discovered quite the contrary. These women were taken to Block VII, where they were robbed of their blood (German army need blood plasma), and then left to die where they lay. For the Germans, their Jewish prisoners “were too inferior to live but not too inferior to keep the German army alive…” Soon after, Dr. Perl was met with another challenge. This time it concerned the pregnant women of an area called Block C. The pregnant women of this block were told that if they were pregnant, they would be moved to another area where they would receive better living conditions, so they could have healthy babies. All that, was of course, lies. One day while running an errand, Perl witnessed what truly became of these women: they were massacred after they had admitted their pregnancies. From that point forward, Dr Perl made it her life’s mission to save as many pregnant women as possible, even if it meant she had to perform abortions. In the final part of the short story, Dr. Perl, tells of an experience she had with Irma Griese, the highest ranking SS female in Auschwitz. As Dr. Perl put it, Griese was “the most depraved, cruel, and imaginative sexual pervert I ever came across.” As an example of this, Griese would whip women’s breast so that they were cut open, and that way, she could get a kick from seeing them suffer as Perl operated on them with only the most primitive tools. One day, there finally came a time when Griese needed the skills of Dr. Perl for something other than her amusement. After requesting Perl into her office, Griese ordered to be examined to find out if she was pregnant. Dr. Perl concluded that was. This diagnosis subsequently led to Dr. Perl performing an abortion on her enemy, for which she was simply told ‘What a pity you have to die, Germany needs good doctors…’ Finally, moving on to the last story, it is time to examine, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, by Tadeusz Borowski.
In this short story, the reader is put into the life of Boroski, a Polish camp worker. In his camp, the edibles left behind by the Jews sent to death, become the spoils of work. Also, being non-Jewish, his camp life was a lot better. He enjoyed the luxury of mail, more food, and acceptable clothing, as opposed to the Jewish. The food from the Jewish was collected by a group known as the Canada. It was the duty of this group to collect the belonging of the incoming Jews, and o separate them into two groups: Those who were to be gassed, and those who were to be used for hard
labor.
Barowski had never gone on duty with the Canada, but was soon going to get his chance. When a train finally arrived at their camp, the Canada were immediately called into action. Being shorted handed, Barowski is allowed into the group. The rules are pretty clear, inmates keep the food, and all valuables go to the SS officers watching over them. When the first cart door is opened, Borowski is aghast by what he sees, “Monstrously squeezed together, they have fainted from heat, suffocated, crushed one another. Now they push toward the opened doors, breathing like fish cast out in the sand” As the helpless victims are sorted out, they turn to Borowski with a barrage of questions, all of which he dodges (avoids). He knew the rules rules of the camp, “people going to their death must be deceived to the very end.” As the day continued, Borowski witnesses a variety of things including the the murder of a small girl, the beating of woman and children, many dead bodies, and the depravity of mankind. In one instance, Borowski was so disgusted, he began to puke. When the day was finally over, Borowski looked to the sky, only to see the “Great columns of smoke rise from the crematoria.” The people he had just earlier sorted out, were turned into ash. Having made it this far, it is now time to reflect upon what the words and experiences of the authors reveal about the Holocaust. One things that is emphasized by these three works, is that the Holocaust was a disgusting and shameful period in human history. It demonstrated what is possible when tyranny comes to power, and it projected the true meaning of the word hate. Aside from this, they also show that a strong soul can survive within a perishing body. On another note, those with a good eye may have noticed that life in these camps was not the same for men and women. Sure, both had to undergo hard labor, however, there were significant differences between the enslavement of the different sexes. One big difference was the fact that woman are susceptible to pregnancy. As can be observed in, I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, pregnant women in these camps were as good as dead. Those who held on to their womb, did not get any special privileges, they worked as the others, and had to share their scarce food with their unborn children. As for those who managed to give birth, they likely witnessed the agonizing death of their children. A final thing to take notice of, is that the Holocaust demonstrated many characteristics of human nature. In all three stories, it became obvious that humans have a large capacity to inflict pain and suffering on those they deem inferior. Whether the pain was delivered in the form of a whip, a beating, a gun, starvation, or painstaking labor, for the Nazis of the era, enough was never enough. They pushed their prisoners to death, and if they could have gone further, they probably wouldn’t hesitate. Despite all this evil, however, there were still people who remained uncorrupted by atmosphere of the era. Two good example of this are Dr. Perl and Lorenzo. All in all, it is clear that the Holocaust was an era in human history that should have never occurred. It was a period in which human depravity reached a peak, but it also served as a lesson. It demonstrated that discrimination, if left unchecked, leads to carnage, and that power in the wrong hands can be the beginning of the end for human ethics. Summing things up, the three stories that were discussed, are pivotal pieces for the development of a better society. Though the Holocaust could not be avoided, the experiences of three authors: Levi, Perl, and Borowski, serve as time capsule to a time when humanity was blinded by hate. The documentation of their experiences serve as signal as to why human being must not repeat the hate and pain that was the Holocaust.
which at that time, to him was just “a name without significance…” As soon as the train ride began, so did the suffering. As many as 640 men were crammed into 12 wagons, and in Levi’s small wagon alone, there were 45 men. These beings were deprived of food, water, and space. They remained packed together among their feces, and eventually, corpses. Nobody from the outside world was allowed to approach the wagons, and many of those inside, began to fight amongst themselves for what little space they had. The cold weather also fell upon them ferociously. When Levi and the other arrivals finally exited the wagons, they were immediately greeted by a group of German SS troops. They were stripped of all their belongings and directed in two different directions based on whether they were healthy or not. One way led to the crematory; the other led to the death camps. In a couple minutes time, all those deemed fit were were separated from the weak, and what became of the others, no one really new. Levi was deemed fit, and as such, was directed to a camp called Buna, where he is shamed and made to suffer a bit more, before eventually being tattooed with the number 174517. That number became his new name. In the beginning, Levi is shunned for being a newbie, but as days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, he begins to grasp the unwritten rules of the camp. Levi quickly learns that food also serves as currency. Also, the numbers tattooed on the inmates said a lot about them, “The period of entry into the camp, the convoy of witch one formed a part, and consequently the nationality.” Those with low number tattoos were old prisoners and were respected; those with high numbers were new prisoners, and were generally disregarded. Asking questions is also taboo. The work that was forced upon the prisoners was quite harsh. Levi, specifically, is forced to push heavy wagons in the harsh cold and shovel day after day. After days of hard labor, one day Levi is injured on the job, and is interned in the infirmary, also known as the Ka-Be. The rules for this place are quite simple, “Those who signs of improvement are cured in the Ka-Be, those who seem to get worse are sent from the Ka-Be to the gas chambers.” Following 20 days of rest, Levi is once again thrust into the the jungle that is the lager, or camp. Fortunately for Levi, he gets thrown into Block 45, where Alberto, his good friend, resides.
For some time, the days at the camp continue as usual, inmates eat, shower, work (brutally), are shaved, and the cycle repeats. As for Levi, he became part a new group known as the Chemical Kammando, a squad made up of skilled chemical workers. Instead of getting a lighter workload and better working conditions, as is customary for skilled workers, Levi’s workload, unfortunately, became a lot harsher. It was an huge disappointment for Levi, and his will to continue living, began to fade. Fortunately, it was around this gloomy time period that Levi met Lorenzo, a civilian (non-Jewish) worker. As a civilian worker, Lorenzo was given way better work conditions and for no apparent reason, he shared his prosperity with Levi by giving him extra bread and other useful supplies in exchange for nothing, something which in the death camp was unheard of. Lorenzo even went so far as to send mail back to Italy for Levi. For Levi, “Lorenzo was a man; his humanity was pure and uncontaminated, he was outside this world of netiation. Thanks to Lorenzo, I managed not to forget that I myself was a man.” Thanks to Lorenzo, Levi was once again eager to live. After a while, Levi finally gets good news. He will become a specialist in the Chemical Kammando. As a specialist, he is given way better work treatment, and better yet, access to a laboratory, from which he can easily steal supplies. The stolen good are used for trading purposes, in order for Levi to improve his living conditions. Unfortunately, (or not) for Levi, just as things began to look up, he is once again forced to make a trip to he Ka-Be, this time for scarlet fever. As fate would have it, the year was 1945 and the war in Europe was coming to an end. For the Germans in Auschwitz and all others who were able to move, this meant it was time to evacuate. Levi, feeling the effects of the fever was incapable of marching to a new location, where ever that may have been. All those who could not march were left behind. In the days following the evacuation, water and heating to the camp were cut off. For Levi and his group of left over ill prisoners, this meant that in order to survive, they had to scavenge the camp. Luckily for them, there were no guards or figures of authority (they evacuated) to prevent them wandering about. They continued this agenda until January 27, 1945 when they were finally liberated by the Russians. The next story, I was a Doctor in Auschwitz, by Grisella Perl, is just what it sounds like. It is the story of Grisella Perl, a Hungarian doctor from Sighet, who was captured by the Nazis. By order of Dr. Josef Mengele, she was forced to become a doctor in Auschwitz, with only the most primitive of medical instruments. Perl lived a relatively normal life before her capture, but once she was in, her life changed forever. In Auschwitz, Dr. Perl learned what it meant to suffer, to hurt, and to feel hungry. As she put it, “the great writer who could describe the hunger we had to endure at Auschwitz has yet to be born.” Even as a Doctor, Perl had too fend for herself among the masses of thousands just like her. A mile stone for her came when she acquired her first pair of shoes after two months in the camp barefoot, but there was one problem, they were to big, and so she desperately needed shoe strings. In her pursuit of string, Perl came across a man from the men’s block who happened to have just what she needed. The man was willing to give up his string, but he did not want Perl’s bread (in exchange), instead he he asked for sex. Dr. Perl vehemently rejected such an offer. Instead she ran to her bunk, where she immediately broke down. Fortunately, this experience was no enough to keep Perl down, instead it only made her stronger. As she put it, “ I was going to remain a human being to the last minute of my life – whenever that would come.” For a while, Dr. Perl remain strong, but her next big test soon made its way to her. One day, after the usual roll call, the healthiest women where chosen among the prisoners and taken away. It was circulated that they were taken somewhere good, but Dr. Perl soon discovered quite the contrary. These women were taken to Block VII, where they were robbed of their blood (German army need blood plasma), and then left to die where they lay. For the Germans, their Jewish prisoners “were too inferior to live but not too inferior to keep the German army alive…” Soon after, Dr. Perl was met with another challenge. This time it concerned the pregnant women of an area called Block C. The pregnant women of this block were told that if they were pregnant, they would be moved to another area where they would receive better living conditions, so they could have healthy babies. All that, was of course, lies. One day while running an errand, Perl witnessed what truly became of these women: they were massacred after they had admitted their pregnancies. From that point forward, Dr Perl made it her life’s mission to save as many pregnant women as possible, even if it meant she had to perform abortions. In the final part of the short story, Dr. Perl, tells of an experience she had with Irma Griese, the highest ranking SS female in Auschwitz. As Dr. Perl put it, Griese was “the most depraved, cruel, and imaginative sexual pervert I ever came across.” As an example of this, Griese would whip women’s breast so that they were cut open, and that way, she could get a kick from seeing them suffer as Perl operated on them with only the most primitive tools. One day, there finally came a time when Griese needed the skills of Dr. Perl for something other than her amusement. After requesting Perl into her office, Griese ordered to be examined to find out if she was pregnant. Dr. Perl concluded that was. This diagnosis subsequently led to Dr. Perl performing an abortion on her enemy, for which she was simply told ‘What a pity you have to die, Germany needs good doctors…’ Finally, moving on to the last story, it is time to examine, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, by Tadeusz Borowski.
In this short story, the reader is put into the life of Boroski, a Polish camp worker. In his camp, the edibles left behind by the Jews sent to death, become the spoils of work. Also, being non-Jewish, his camp life was a lot better. He enjoyed the luxury of mail, more food, and acceptable clothing, as opposed to the Jewish. The food from the Jewish was collected by a group known as the Canada. It was the duty of this group to collect the belonging of the incoming Jews, and o separate them into two groups: Those who were to be gassed, and those who were to be used for hard
labor.
Barowski had never gone on duty with the Canada, but was soon going to get his chance. When a train finally arrived at their camp, the Canada were immediately called into action. Being shorted handed, Barowski is allowed into the group. The rules are pretty clear, inmates keep the food, and all valuables go to the SS officers watching over them. When the first cart door is opened, Borowski is aghast by what he sees, “Monstrously squeezed together, they have fainted from heat, suffocated, crushed one another. Now they push toward the opened doors, breathing like fish cast out in the sand” As the helpless victims are sorted out, they turn to Borowski with a barrage of questions, all of which he dodges (avoids). He knew the rules rules of the camp, “people going to their death must be deceived to the very end.” As the day continued, Borowski witnesses a variety of things including the the murder of a small girl, the beating of woman and children, many dead bodies, and the depravity of mankind. In one instance, Borowski was so disgusted, he began to puke. When the day was finally over, Borowski looked to the sky, only to see the “Great columns of smoke rise from the crematoria.” The people he had just earlier sorted out, were turned into ash. Having made it this far, it is now time to reflect upon what the words and experiences of the authors reveal about the Holocaust. One things that is emphasized by these three works, is that the Holocaust was a disgusting and shameful period in human history. It demonstrated what is possible when tyranny comes to power, and it projected the true meaning of the word hate. Aside from this, they also show that a strong soul can survive within a perishing body. On another note, those with a good eye may have noticed that life in these camps was not the same for men and women. Sure, both had to undergo hard labor, however, there were significant differences between the enslavement of the different sexes. One big difference was the fact that woman are susceptible to pregnancy. As can be observed in, I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, pregnant women in these camps were as good as dead. Those who held on to their womb, did not get any special privileges, they worked as the others, and had to share their scarce food with their unborn children. As for those who managed to give birth, they likely witnessed the agonizing death of their children. A final thing to take notice of, is that the Holocaust demonstrated many characteristics of human nature. In all three stories, it became obvious that humans have a large capacity to inflict pain and suffering on those they deem inferior. Whether the pain was delivered in the form of a whip, a beating, a gun, starvation, or painstaking labor, for the Nazis of the era, enough was never enough. They pushed their prisoners to death, and if they could have gone further, they probably wouldn’t hesitate. Despite all this evil, however, there were still people who remained uncorrupted by atmosphere of the era. Two good example of this are Dr. Perl and Lorenzo. All in all, it is clear that the Holocaust was an era in human history that should have never occurred. It was a period in which human depravity reached a peak, but it also served as a lesson. It demonstrated that discrimination, if left unchecked, leads to carnage, and that power in the wrong hands can be the beginning of the end for human ethics. Summing things up, the three stories that were discussed, are pivotal pieces for the development of a better society. Though the Holocaust could not be avoided, the experiences of three authors: Levi, Perl, and Borowski, serve as time capsule to a time when humanity was blinded by hate. The documentation of their experiences serve as signal as to why human being must not repeat the hate and pain that was the Holocaust.