View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Levi characterize the shame and guilt that survivors feel?
(a) Funny and sympathetic.
(b) Absurd but real.
(c) Imaginary but heavy.
(d) Serious and debilitating.

2. Monowitz was part of which camp?
(a) Bergen-Belsen.
(b) Treblinka.
(c) Auschwitz.
(d) Buchenwald.

3. According to Levi, why did prisoners not commit suicide?
(a) The prisoners were hopeful that they would be freed any day.
(b) Religious people think suicide is an affront to God.
(c) Their whole existence wa wrapped up in survival.
(d) There were no means by which to do so in the lager.

4. What was the place of the Sonderkommandos within the Lager?
(a) They were kept segregated.
(b) They only ate with other prisoners.
(c) They shared barracks with other prisoners.
(d) They moved about freely.

5. Levi's knowledge of the German language was __________ in Auschwitz.
(a) Forgettable.
(b) Helpful.
(c) Problematic.
(d) Useless.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens to Alberto?

2. Where did the SS recruit Sonderkommandos?

3. What were the Sonderkommandos taught?

4. What did Chaim Rumkowski consider himself to be?

5. What did Levi choose to do with the object he finds?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Alberto change his mind about consoling oneself with illusions?

2. According to Levi, which memories seem to be universal?

3. Why do survivors simplify the past by using stark good vs. evil distinctions?

4. Comment on Levi's experience with speaking/understanding German in the lager.

5. What happeneds to people who become sonderkommandos?

6. According to Levi, why do oppressors suppress memories?

7. What is Primo Levi's theory about judging any people associated with the lagers?

8. Why were political prisoners envied?

9. Levi often characterizes survivors as being privileged. What does he mean by this?

10. What did the Nazis hope as the tide of war turned in 1942?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 769 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample