SOURCE: “The Language of Judgment: Primo Levi's Se questo è un uomo,” in MLN, Vol. 110, No. 4, September, 1995, pp. 755-84.

In the following stylistic analysis of If This Is a Man, Sachs posits that Levi's objective tone forces the readers to make their own judgments.

“I think there are as many ways of surviving survival as there have been to survive.”

—Philip K., quoted in Holocaust Testimonies

In the 1976 Appendix to an annotated edition of Se questo è un uomo [Author's note: While the English edition of Se questo è un uomo is for the most part a subtle and sensitive translation, the title by which Levi's work is presently known, Survival in Auschwitz, bears no relationship to the original, and is, moreover, a travesty of it. Se questo è un uomo was originally published in English with the exact equivalent of the Italian: If This Is a Man.] intended for use in...