Chapter 1 "The Journey," Summary and Analysis

Primo Levi, the author and subject of the autobiography, was arrested in December, 1943. An anti-Fascist Italian Jew, he was sent to a prison camp in Italy and then deported to Auschwitz in February, 1944. Levi survived Auschwitz largely because by 1944, the Nazis had suspended full-effort genocide in preference to enforced convict labor. When the camp was evacuated in January, 1945, Levi remained behind, a victim of Scarlet Fever. After surviving for ten days in the abandoned and rapidly deteriorating camp, he was liberated by the arriving Soviet Army. After spending several months in a Soviet camp for former concentration camp inmates, Levi eventually returned to his home of Turin in October of 1945.

The chapter details the process which led to Primo Levi, the author and principle subject of the autobiography, to be captured and deported to Auschwitz...