Journal #10

Chapter 10. Chemical Examination

This chapter introduces what is called "chemical examination." Primo Levi volunteers to be a worker in the Chemical Kommando, because it is much less strenuous work. What I thought from that is how human tends to find the way to live the best life under the given circumstances. Primo Levi, just like any other person in the world, seems to seek a way out of this death camp.

"And now I also know that i can save myself if I become a Specialist, and that I
will become a Specialist if I pass a chemistry exmination."

However, after all the experiences he has gone through in Auschwitz, Primo Levi does not accept this examination quite readily. His disbeliefs and memories of torture make him doubt anything he sees and hears. "But have the Germans such great need of chemists? Or is it a new trick, a new machine 'pour faire chier les Juifs'? Are they aware of the grotesque and absurd test asked of us, of us who are nolonger alive, of us who have already gone half-crazy in the dreary expectation of nothing?" Only by the hope of surviving this dreadful place, Primo Levi decided to go through the chemical examination, because he knows one simple truth: "No Sacred Face will help thee here... it's not A Serchio bathing-party..."

Journal #9

Chapter 9. The Drowned and The Saved

"But in the Lager things are different: here the struggle to survive is
without respite, because everyone is desperately and ferociously alone."

"Thousands of individuals, differing in age, condition, origin, language, culture and customs, are enclosed within barbed wire: there they live a regular, controlled life which is identical for all and inadequate to all needs..."

This chapter focuses on the individuality of prisoners in the Auschwitz. As mentioned in the quotes above, we can see how indiviuals struggle to survive this camp. They steal things, beat others and rebel, but it seems that they are the one who will make it out of the camps. This puts them in the dilemma. Should they choose to survive physically, or should they keep their morals? I sometimes also feel the same dilemma. If I could cheat, that would definitely raise my grade, but then I am a cheater and I'm not a good student any more. Everyone knows that no one should cheat, but, still, this dilemma is something that everyone experiences.

Journal #8

Chapter 8. This Side of Good and Evil

This chapter introduces a black market inside the Auschwitz. Black market usually has bad connotations because of the things traded inside the market. They usually trade forbidden things, like drugs, weapons, etc - honestly i don't know too much about them - but in Auschwitz it's different. They trade what they really need and it seems that this market is rather a "white market." All the prisoners benefit from the trade, except that theft and counter-theft is prevalent in this place.

More interesting feature of the market was that it looked more like a society inside the camp. For instance, there is fluctuation in the value of certain goods, just like what happends in our economic system:

"There have been periods in which the prize-coupon was worth one ration of
bread, then one and a quarter, even one and a third; one day it was quoted at
one and a half ration, but then the supply of Mahorca to the canteen failed,
sothat, lacking a coverage, the money collapsed at once to a quarter of a
ration."

It tells us that wherever people gather, there is a society, almost the same with the one in which we live. Maybe this is why we sometimes consider books as mirrors of the society; even in this biography we find a distinct society in the camp.

Journal #7

Chapter 7. A Good Day

"Today is a good day. We look around like blind people who have recovered their
sight, and we look at each other. We have never seen each other in sunlight:
someone smiles."

Why was it a good day? There were two answers for that. First, literally, it was a sunny day and, therefore, a good day. The other reason is that the prisoners got more soup than usual. I think that the former reason makes more sense in the context of this novel, even though it does sound ridiculous to say, "it was a good day because it was sunny."

The sun, in this chapter, has a symbolic meaning of hope and the connection between the past and the present. The quote above shows that the blind prisoners "recovered their sight, which indicates that they haven't seen sunlight for a long time. It is the same sunlight that they used to have while they were "civilians," and it is probably the only common thing between the concentration camps and their home.

This passage reminded me that we sometimes take our daily life granted and that we shouldn't be.

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.

Journal #5

Chapter 5. Our Nights

Now Primo Levi is "discharged to his great pleasure." However, he still dreams of pleasure, which is more than just foods, which others desire. His dream is about the whistle, hard bed and his neighbor. He soon figures out that no one is paying attention to what he is saying, and that his dream is only "dream."

"In fact, they are completely indifferent: they speak confusedly of other things
among themselves, as if I was not there. My sister looks at me, get up and goes
away without a word. A desolating grief is now born in me, like certain barely
remembered pains of one's early infancy."

This chapter shows how the attitudes of people change as their circumstances change. If people around Primo Levi were listening to him as "civilians," they would have considered it nostalgic; in Auschwitz, it's stays a "dream." Unrealistic but creative. From the very point they rode on the train, they are stuck in the Auschwitz, a closed, but endless death camp, where there is no tomorrow.

Journal #4

Chapter 4. Ka-Be

The most impressive feeling that this chapter gave me was irony. Ka-Be, which is an abbreviation of Krankenbau, or the infirmary, is the place where prisoners rest from labor for a week or two. It sounded ironic because we usually go to the infirmary because we are sick and hurt and we don't really want to go to infirmary even if we get hurt. In Auschwitz, labor is the worst thing the prisoners are to do and Ka-Be is the only way to avoid working.

"Chajim rejoices with me: I have a good wound, it does not seem dangerous, but
it should be enough to guarantee me a discreet period of rest."

This sentence showed how lucky for the prisoners to be hurt. Every moment in Auschwitz is painful for them, and Ka-Be is probably the only place where prisoners can rest without suffering from labor. From an optimistic point of view, however, it seems that there is always way out even the most desperate situations, like the Auschwitz.