Compare And Contrast Elie Wiesel And Primo Levi

“I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now” (Wiesel, 68). Neither Elie Wiesel nor Primo Levi survived Auschwitz without bearing both mental and physical scars from the time they spent at the concentration camp, and yet both men differed in how they reflected on their experiences. Wiesel offers a more personal account of his suffering, perhaps in part due to his relative youth (Wiesel was a teenager) when he was sent to Auschwitz. Consequently, there is a faint undercurrent of hope that slowly begins to fade in Wiesel’s words, as he describes how being imprisoned in the camp came to drastically affect both his mental and physical well being, as well his faith and convictions. In comparison, Levi seemed to take a more clinical approach when assessing his experiences and astutely observes the factors that impact survival rates at Auschwitz, especially with regards …show more content…
Wiesel goes on to mention, “Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That’s all we though about. No thought of revenge, or of parents. Only of bread” (Wiesel, 115). Those lines are eerily similar to what Levi wrote, when he states, “To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded. Here we are, docile under your gaze; from our side you have nothing more to fear; no acts of violence, no words of defiance, not even a look of judgement” (Levi, 150). In coming to this realization both men recognize that despite having lived, the cruelty inflicted upon them by both the German guards and their fellow prisoners at Auschwitz had left them less then human in a sense, when they were finally