Primo Levi
"To forget the pass, is to condemn oneself to relive it."
Primo Levi
Biography
His life
Primo Levi is in Turin on January 31, 1919, in a Jewish family but not very observant. His judgment, Primo Levi will only become aware of it with the appearance of the antis mite mentality in Italy, around 1938. After having followed chemistry studies, he leaves to settle in Milan. In 1943, he joined the Giustizia e Liberta (antifascist organization installed in the Italian Alps) and was arrested on December 13 of the same year, the age of 24, by the fascist militia. He is an intern at the Carpi-Fossoli camp, all near the Austrian front.
In February 1944, the camp, which had been kept until then by an Italian administration, passed into German hands: it is the d-portation to Auschwitz. He was freed on January 27, 1945, the date of the liberation of the camp by the volunteers. Once the war is over, he will push Lucia Morpugo, have 2 children and run a chemical company. During the last months of his life, Primo Levi was very affected by the mount e of visibility and intelligence. Deep ment of prim, on April 11, 1987, he threw himself into the stairwell of his building. On his grave are inscribed his name and 174 517, his Auschwitz registration number.
Primo Levi: the man
The port s are sometimes ashamed of what happened to them: Levi, meanwhile, uses any situation to justify what happened to him. It is a way to r on sister: a daily fight against forgetting; his language, his person m me, are evidence that supports what he wrote. Ferdinando Camon wrote Primo Levi in the foreword of his collection of conversations:
"Levi did not shout, insulted, accused, because he did not want to scream, he wanted much more: make scream. He has his own action in change from our actions all. His reasoning focused on the long hard e. His mod ration, his gentleness, his smile - which had something shy, almost childish - were at his arms' r alit.
Primo Levi: the crivain
His first book, If it’s a man, published in 1947, is a kind of journal of his work and one of the first testimonies of life in the Auschwitz camp. He will write other works such as The Tr ve in 1963 (under the pseudonym of Damiano Malabaila), as well as fictions inspired by his experience as a chemist such as The Naufrag s and The Rescap s in 1986 which will be his last book, the darkest of all.