Survival in Auschwitz | Topics for Discussion & Projects

Survival in Auschwitz Topics for Discussion

Levi comments that many Italian Jews had voluntarily surrendered to the Fascist authorities "...absurdly—'to be in conformity with the law'" (p. 14). Most citizens in most nations ruled by law consider conformance with the law to be a basic tenet of civilization. Yet in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the laws demanded impossible things. Discuss your probable reaction to laws, which would legalize and subsequently authorize genocide.

When Levi entered Auschwitz he passed under an infamous gate bearing the words 'Arbeit Macht Frei', or "Work Gives Freedom." Contrast the probable intended interpretation of this sign with the darkly ironic truth it encapsulated. Within the context of Auschwitz, what would constitute freedom?

One of the first people Levi meets in Lager is a man named Steinlauf, who assures Levi that personal bathing is a necessity for survival—even though the bathing was physically ineffectual at cleanliness. Levi eventually comes to believe that...
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