Primo Levi Chapter Summary

In chapter fifteen of his memoir, Levi shares how Doctor Pannwitz eventually chose him and two others to work in the laboratory. Primo Levi shares his amazement of being chosen and states, “A Belgian, a Russian and an Italian: three ‘Franzosen’, in short. Is it possible that three Franzosen have really been chosen to enter the paradise of the Laboratory?” (138). Levi was surprised of being chosen because besides Jews being condemned in concentration and death camps along with political prisoners, within the camps there was an hierarchy in place, that placed Italian Jews at the bottom. The use of the word paradise in describing the laboratory shows a perspective of salvation and survival. In the laboratory, Levi no longer had to work in harsh

Lorenzo was an Italian civilian worker who brought Levi a piece of bread and the remainder of his ration every day for six months, gave him a vest, and wrote a postcard on Primo Levi’s behalf to Italy. Lorenzo did not ask not accept any form of gratitude and did not believe in doing what was right for reward. Primo Levi states, “I believe that it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence, by his natural and plain manner of being good, that there still existed a just world outside our own” (121). Because of the humanity that Lorenzo shared with Primo Levi, he realized that even though his life as a prisoner was removing his sense of will, purpose and belief in humanity, he needed to survive to believe and prove that there was still good in people and society. The concentration and death camps of Auschwitz forced people to bury their humanity and fight one another for resources, power and a hierarchical system, but people like Lorenzo, showed Primo Levi that humanity could once again be pure and uncontaminated and that he too could once again believe in his own