Morality In Primo Levi's If This Is A Man

In Primo Levi’s memoir, If This Is a Man, Levi focuses not on just recounting the atrocities he was forced to endure and bear witness to but provides a coldly objective narrative of the acts that humans are capable of in extreme situations. These acts run the gamut from kindness exhibited with no expectations in return to callous manipulation to the detriment of others. Levi is very intentional in avoiding judging the actions of others in the camp, although he cannot always remain so objective about his own actions that must take to survive. Levi seems to be fascinated with the idea of morality and what changes a person can make to their self imposed morality in order to survive. The idea of a universally held moral code quickly breaks down under the stress of a survival situation. The conditions and systematic dehumanization at Auschwitz created a vacuum where moral law ceased to exist and became a battle to try to retain your own humanity. Levi himself struggled with this but learned early in his …show more content…
This leads to the realization that in the camp there is a law that seems to be proven time and time again. Levi writes it as, “to he that has, will be given; from he that has not, will be taken away.”
“But here in the Lager there are no criminals nor madmen; no criminals because there is no moral law to contravene, no madmen because we are wholly devoid of free will, as our every action is, in time and place, the only conceivable one.” (Henri 9)
“I already know that it is the normal order of things that the privileged oppress the unprivileged: the social structure of the camp is based on this human law.” (4) Ka-Be