Survival In Auschwitz Analysis

World War II was a cruel war spanning every corner of the globe, resulting in millions of casualties. Victims of the war suffered brutish force from the Axis and Ally powers alike. Due to this, their experiences were felt on a collective, widespread scale. In the book A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous, the woman suffered horrible rape that made her loathe her own body. Women’s bodies were seen as merely sexual commodities that were a prize for the Russians for defeating the Germans in Berlin. On the other hand, in Primo Levi’s book Survival in Auschwitz, Levi describes the Germans’ diligence in transforming the Jews into hollow creatures at the bottom of human existence. However, both authors portray their dehumanization by referring to …show more content…
The Germans took away everything that belonged to the Jews, resulting in lost and confused bodies with no structure and direction. Levi asserts that “Nothing belongs to us anymore; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take our name…” (27). Essential human items were stripped from the Jews, most importantly their name, which was traded for a number tattooed on their arm. The Germans completely degraded the Jews by denying them their name, which is a symbol of what their life consisted of before the concentration camp. Levi refers to his life before Auschwitz as a “…previous incarnation” showing the complete disconnect between his present life and his past life (106). He was reduced to living life by the next bowl of soup, thus he did not have time to recall his life as a chemist. Due to this, Levi felt like a “…hollow man…” (27) who was “…transformed into [a] phantom…” (26). Levi was void of emotions and thoughts, his body was practically dead, and he was creeping along through life as an invisible and unimportant husk of a man. The Germans’ dehumanization of the Jews in Auschwitz pushed the Jews to the bottom of human …show more content…
However, the will to survive does not come from the human realm. They must rely on basal instincts to survive. Levi explains that “…the Lager was a great machine to reduce us to beasts…” implying they must harness these beast-like instincts in order to survive (41). There was no emotion or drive left in Levi; his only goal was to survive. Levi’s “…struggle for life is reduced to its primordial mechanism…” (88). This level of degradation causes the people in the Lager to no longer have normal needs and desires. They cannot enjoy the subtleties of life anymore; they can only worry about surviving long enough to get their next meal, which is a beast-like tendency. Comparatively, Anonymous must rely on these same instincts in order to survive. She did not have the time or energy for emotive things, she “…only know[s] [she] want[s] to survive—against all sense and reason, just like an animal” (261). She must trudge through life, constantly bombarded with threats of rape and hunger. Due to this, her will to survive must be animalistic. Anonymous and Levi’s dehumanization by the Russians and Germans, respectively, pushed them to fight for their life like sub-human