Primo Levi’s ‘If This is a Man’ is more than a Jewish perspective on the Holocaust, it is a human perspective. In adopting this unique perspective, Levi displays faith and trust in men and mankind rather than in God, which has been critically considered as a form of humanism. Jonathan Druker comments on this perspective in the text, explaining that ‘Levi’s type of humanism positions man, not God at its centre and … remains at least partially optimistic about human nature and the prospects for social progress’[1].
Despite enduring harsh torture and de-humanisation from the Nazis in the camp, Levi managed to keep a sense of faith in humanity and hope for the future. Druker comments that:
Humanist faith – optimism for the future – may seem surprising after Levi’s trip to Auschwitz, a place where dehumanized victims and the inhumane perpetrators together demonstrated the fragility of the Enlightenment idea of Man. Nevertheless, the critical consensus is that Levi’s hopeful humanism persists because he doggedly refuses to part with it. (p. 5-6)
The de-humanisation he suffered would not only have affected him in the camps, but would have produced a trauma that stuck with him for life. The ongoing memories of his experience makes it difficult to put an end to the text for Levi, producing a cyclical repetition of the trauma for the rest of his life. In this sense, was Levi ever liberated completely? Thus, Levi had to give up parts of his humanity in order to become a survivor in the camps, yet he still managed to remain humane.
A key part of the text which displays this harsh de-humanisation is during Levi’s time in Ka-Be. In the infirmary, Levi reflects on the forced labour he has been carrying out in the camp: ‘when one works, one suffers and there is no time to think’[2]. However, upon entering Ka-Be, one can ‘feels his conscience re-awken’ (p. 60). Ka-Be acts as a kind of limbo where the prisoners have a chance to think and reflect, which they do not have the time for while being victims of the harsh labour, hunger and torture. Ka-Be acts as a milestone in Levi’s journey, being the first time in the camp where he can feel human again and come to the realisation that the camp is de-humanising the prisoners through its ruthless conditions. It was Levi’s acknowledgment of this de-humanisation which kept him humane.
It is widely accepted in critical opinion – such as Druker’s – that Levi wrote as an objective, scientific investigator with humane restraint rather than with a register of anger or rage. These key elements of his text, contrasting to other Holocaust survival writers such as Elie Wiesel, is what made him iconic as an ideal Holocaust survivor. Levi writes the crimes of Nazism in a new light in the name of human rights, defending the universal human rather than the Jew.
References
[1] Jonathan Druker, Primo Levi and Humanism After Auschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 5. All subsequent reference in parenthesis within text. [2] Primo Levi, If This is a Man/The Truce, trans. by Stuart Woolf, (London: Abacus, 1991), p. 61. All subsequent reference in parenthesis within text.