Journal #6

Chapter 6. The Work

As the title suggests, this chapter shows how harsh labor is in the Auschwitz. The main theme in this story is probably how people form groups inside the Auschwitz, especailly when each pair up with another person when working.
"I will try and place myself with Resnyk; he seems a good worker and being taller will support the greater part of the weight. I know that it is in the natural order of events that Resnyk refuse me with disdain and form a pair with another more robust individual."
Reading this passage, the image I brought up immediately was the survival of the fittest. All the strong and robust people pair up with each other and work well, while the weak eventually die out because of harsh work. However, the reality in Auschwitz is much more optimistic than what Primo expects;
"Instead Resnyk accepts, and even more, lifts up the sleeper by himself and rests it on my right shoulder with care; then he lifts up the other end, stopps to place it on his left shoulder and we leave."
What I leart from this is how Germans failed to destroy the humanity in the Jews. Although strenuous work and harsh punishment might have physically tortured them to the worst extent, they never lost their morality nor dignity. There might have been some people who have lost their humanity right away, but there is always, at least, a minority who keeps their morality, and, seeing that even armed Germans have failed to, it seems so difficult to root out the human dignity from people.