A sequence of disastrous and sad actions occurred throughout World War Two. World war two was a war that occurred from 1939 to 1945. One of the foremost catastrophic event that occurred was what is known to be the holocaust. The holocaust, being led by Adolf Hitler and other fascist leaders, occurred in Germany and later expanded throughout Europe with the progression of the war. During the holocaust many individuals were put into concentration camps. It is an estimate that 1.3 million people were relocated into the concentration camp Auschwitz (Kucia 2). According to Kucia, Historians estimate that during the existence of Auschwitz (June 1940- January 1945) about 1.1 million people were killed (Kucia 1), Some of the motives why range …show more content…
Primo Levi being a survivor experienced the holocaust and its repercussions first hand (534). According to primo, In order to get points and rules to many of the prisoners’ guards would beat them. Some of the reasoning for why communication was not notable between prisoner and guards were because of the language barriers and because of the hated instilled into the guards by political views. (Brophy 537) Within the Primary source Primo explains an instance that draws attention to how prisoners would be abused. “Only by showing one’s number, could one get bread and soup. Several days passed and not a few cuff and punches, before we became used to showing our number promptly enough” (537). Levi, being Italian decent and not German descent, was not used to the German language therefore did not know what guard were telling him. The guards were showing erratic and hostile behavior by beating the prisoners instead of trying to find other solutions to the problem of not being able to communicate. Levi also went in to his account with the language barrier he witnessed and experienced while he was in the camp. According to Levi, “weeks and months were needed in order to learn its sound in the German language” (537). Instead of knowing the language the prisoners had to decipher it but listening to similar sounds or words that they had heard before. Recognizing these details helps represent the idea of how there was a lack of humanity and sympathy and how full of animosity and callousness the guards of the concentration camps were. Instead of recognizing that the prisoners were people the guards recognized them as just numbers. Levi also talked about how once you received your tattooed number you were no longer yourself, but just another number. For Levi, he was just number 174517 to the guards within Auschwitz. This important to know because it puts things into a new perspective. The