The Drowned and the Saved

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Death camp survivor - Rated
The author, Primo Levi, tries to understand the rationale behind Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen. Dismissing stereotyped images of brutal Nazi torturers and helpless victims, Levi draws extensively on his own experiences and substantial intelect to delve into the minds and motives of oppressors and oppressed alike. Describing the difficulty and shame of remembering, the limited forms of collaboration between inmates and SS goalers, the exploitation of "useless violence" and the plight of the intellectual, Levi writes about the issue of power, mercy and guilt, and their effects on the lives of the ordinary people who suffered so incomprehendingly. A sad tale of an attempt to rationalise mans behaviour in the most extreme of circumstances.

I found this to be an interesting read but I thought in certain areas the author could have made his point in a more succinct manner...i.e. he rambled on a bit! Levi does put a lot of pertinent points across to the reader though that are well evidenced with survivor testomonies and direct personal experiences. It's obviously a sad read due to the content but made more tragic knowing that Levi killed himself shortly after the completion of the book.

A survivor of hell, writing with compassion and wisdom - Rated
I read this book during the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 as I wondered what would happen to the Lebanese I was meeting who had collaborated with the Israeli occupiers. Who exactly was guilty? And how guilty were they?

Levi writes about guilt in the horrific circumstances of the Nazi concentration camp, mulling over those who co-operated with the Nazis (working, eg, as cleaners)if only to extend their lives by a short period. He writes with an astonishing humanity and humility, and with a strange detachment that makes his observations more telling.

Having survived such a hell, he felt the guilt of the 'saved' that he had seen so many 'drown' and he wrote as a man of compassion and wisdom. Levi will make you cry and take you to the depths, but somehow make you feel stronger.

Surely one of the most important books of the twentieth century.

How does one survive in a world built to murder you? - Rated
I heard recently a statistic that claimed that more than 12% of the population of the UK (of adult age)had never even heard of Adolf Hitler. How many of those that did, I wondered, knew about what he did to European Jewry? Those who do know of the holocaust usually know of little other than Auschwitz but even then only think of it as a railway station with a path to the side that leads to a gas chamber, not as an actual camp where thousands struggled to live what life they were temporarily allowed in order to serve their murderes via forced labour.

Prison stories are always chilling but most think of prison as a place of holding until release, not death. What place does morality, conscience, hygiene and dignity have in a death camp?

Levi's description of camp life is not as brutal and disturbing as perhaps those related in Martin Gilbert's 'The Holocaust', the book seems less about the atrocities afflicted on the inmates but on how they survived them and further still retained the spirit and will to continue.

I have not the knowledge or right to really comment on his work or indeed on the work of any survivor. It is not my place even to judge those that commited the crimes. What is important is that I (and others of my age) know of them. For to be ignorant of it is not only a betrayal of those destroyed by it, but a further crime against those who survived it.

How does one survive in a world built to murder you? - Rated
I heard recently a statistic that claimed that more than 12% of the population of the UK (of adult age)had never even heard of Adolf Hitler. How many of those that did, I wondered, knew about what he did to European Jewry? Those who do know of the holocaust usually know of little other than Auschwitz but even then only think of it as a railway station with a path to the side that leads to a gas chamber, not as an actual camp where thousands struggled to live what life they were temporarily allowed in order to serve their murderes via forced labour.

Prison stories are always chilling but most think of prison as a place of holding until release, not death. What place does morality, conscience, hygiene and dignity have in a death camp?

Levi's description of camp life in 'Is this a Man'is not as brutal and disturbing as perhaps those related in Martin Gilbert's 'The Holocaust', the book seems less about the atrocities afflicted on the inmates but on how they survived them and further still retained the spirit and will to continue. In 'The Drowned and the Saved' Levi attempts to understand the German people of the Nazi era. How they endorsed or allowed themselves to be seduced by the Nazi ideology... by greed, vanity and hatred... to turn their backs on morality, truth and basic human goodness. Germany will always be remembered or rather tarnished because of the Nazis, it will always remain as much a part of their history as the Congo atrocities belonged to Leopold's Belgium, Australia's belong with the British and the on-going crimes visited on the Native Americans...

I have not the knowledge or right to really comment on his work or indeed on the work of any survivor. It is not my place even to judge those that commited the crimes. What is important is that I (and others of my age) know of them. For to be ignorant of it is not only a betrayal of those destroyed by it, but a further crime against those who survived it.

An analytical look at the Holocaust from a Witness - Rated
Levi once again manages to concisely delve into the topic of the Holocaust. Here he refers to his experiences to confront the deeper issues of life in the Lager and the after effects it had on the survivors, the Saved. It can best be surmised as a collection of essays that address various topics, (including, but not exclusively): the fallacies of memories, prisoners who cooperated with the Nazis, the importance of communication and language in the Lager, the guilt felt by survivors and the response from his German readers. If you have read Levi's autobiographical works, then this is a necessary accompaniment. The only negative thing I have to say about this edition is the review on the back jacket which so firmly states that Levi's death was a suicide, and makes conjectures as to why he did so. His death is a mystery and will always remain as such.(Good content, bad cover!)