Ethical Themes Paper: An Ethical Analysis of Primo Levi’s Experience in Auschwitz Esca Koegelenberg 11/20/17
Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish prisoner of war, that was captured and sent to work at Auschwitz a concentration camp in Poland during World War II. During his time here Primo experienced many ethical issues and struggled to survive. In this paper I will be analyzing the moral decisions that were made how they were faced and how my view has been impacted by his time in Auschwitz.
Primo levi was a chemist that came from a good University but was declared a Jew which made it difficult for him to thrive after graduating. After Primo declared himself a Jew he was first sent to an Italian prison camp in the …show more content…
The “ordinary moral world” (86) Primo Levi explains in Survival in Auschwitz, ceases to exist; the meanings and applications of words like “good,” “evil,” “just,” and “unjust” begin to fuse and the differences between these polar opposites become unclear. This to me shows just how excrushiating this experience is when our whole lives are based on our morals. Primo had a difficulty understanding what mind-set you had to have while living there. Although, Primo I believe, was a good guy he was constanly trying to mantiain a healthy mental outlook while keeping in mind the needs to survival and caring for himself while still trying to be a good friend and look out for those who are close to him. From reading that quotation from his book I definitely wonder and put myself in his shoes to try an imagine what that must feel like. Although this is hard for me to even fathom I see myself being hopeless and lost living in a place with no standards and no real conception of what is right and wrong anymore. This makes me value what life I live in even though the morals in this world I live in aren’t perfect and there is a lot of wrong done in society, I still am very blessed to be able to live the life that I …show more content…
He was the first person that he met at camp and was a civilian worker not a prisoner. Lorenzo took Primo in and gave him extra bread and soup which was forbidden and could’ve gotten him in major trouble. This compassion shows me that this was the hope that Primo had that there still was good in this evil new life he was given. This friendship was the foundation to all the other relationships that primo endured. I believe that he had to be selfish in ways that he normally wouldn’t but have a small circle of people to help eachother and use eachothers recources for survival. As I examine that being a free person and having all the rights and liberities a person can have, I feel we should take this scenario in to consideration when facing every day life. I believe this could be beneficial to our success even as a liberated individual. Although knowing that people are struggling around us no matter how prosperous we are we should still think about our well being and the ones we loves well-beings as well. Although, his situation was way worse and we should not compare our means to survival because their factors were way more more based on strictly survial than ours and we as suvilians of a good society don’t have to live in a way to only focus on living for one more day or strictly thinking of only when our next meal will be or how will survive the physical factors that are around us. Their morals
Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish prisoner of war, that was captured and sent to work at Auschwitz a concentration camp in Poland during World War II. During his time here Primo experienced many ethical issues and struggled to survive. In this paper I will be analyzing the moral decisions that were made how they were faced and how my view has been impacted by his time in Auschwitz.
Primo levi was a chemist that came from a good University but was declared a Jew which made it difficult for him to thrive after graduating. After Primo declared himself a Jew he was first sent to an Italian prison camp in the …show more content…
The “ordinary moral world” (86) Primo Levi explains in Survival in Auschwitz, ceases to exist; the meanings and applications of words like “good,” “evil,” “just,” and “unjust” begin to fuse and the differences between these polar opposites become unclear. This to me shows just how excrushiating this experience is when our whole lives are based on our morals. Primo had a difficulty understanding what mind-set you had to have while living there. Although, Primo I believe, was a good guy he was constanly trying to mantiain a healthy mental outlook while keeping in mind the needs to survival and caring for himself while still trying to be a good friend and look out for those who are close to him. From reading that quotation from his book I definitely wonder and put myself in his shoes to try an imagine what that must feel like. Although this is hard for me to even fathom I see myself being hopeless and lost living in a place with no standards and no real conception of what is right and wrong anymore. This makes me value what life I live in even though the morals in this world I live in aren’t perfect and there is a lot of wrong done in society, I still am very blessed to be able to live the life that I …show more content…
He was the first person that he met at camp and was a civilian worker not a prisoner. Lorenzo took Primo in and gave him extra bread and soup which was forbidden and could’ve gotten him in major trouble. This compassion shows me that this was the hope that Primo had that there still was good in this evil new life he was given. This friendship was the foundation to all the other relationships that primo endured. I believe that he had to be selfish in ways that he normally wouldn’t but have a small circle of people to help eachother and use eachothers recources for survival. As I examine that being a free person and having all the rights and liberities a person can have, I feel we should take this scenario in to consideration when facing every day life. I believe this could be beneficial to our success even as a liberated individual. Although knowing that people are struggling around us no matter how prosperous we are we should still think about our well being and the ones we loves well-beings as well. Although, his situation was way worse and we should not compare our means to survival because their factors were way more more based on strictly survial than ours and we as suvilians of a good society don’t have to live in a way to only focus on living for one more day or strictly thinking of only when our next meal will be or how will survive the physical factors that are around us. Their morals