Journal #17

Chapter 17. The Story of Ten Days

"I had a high fever. I was lucky entirely to myself: I lay down with relief
knowing that I had the right to forty days' isolation and therefore of rest."

Primo was lucky to fall sick with fever. If it were not for fever, he would have gone with the Germans and eventually be killed by them. It sounded ironic to me, because fever saved him from death. It also reminded of the Ka-Be, the infirmary, discussed at the beginning of the book. To be sick in the Auschwitz meants to rest, if the sickness was not fatal. Now that all the people except sick people are evacuated, there is no one to force them to work, no one to punish them, and no one to distribute foods. However, they still show their respect to those who suffered and would suffer for a little bit more: "We could not find anything to say, but for the time being we did not touch the bread." Should they have already been blinded by hunger and pain, they wouldn't wait until the bread was distributed among themselves. It would be done even before they were sliced into pieces. January 27, the last day in the Auschwitz, was also the last moment they were stuck in the nightmare. It was the end of their experience in the Auschwitz, but their memory would never leave there. Germans, though they were eventually put down, tortured so many people to the end of their lives.