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Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was a Jewish Italian chemist, partisan,
Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...
and writer. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works include: '' If This Is a Man'' (''Se questo è un uomo'', 1947, published as ''Survival in Auschwitz'' in the United States), his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
in
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
-occupied Poland; and '' The Periodic Table'' (1975), a collection of mostly autobiographical short stories, each named after a chemical element which plays a role in each story, which the
Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
named the best science book ever written. Levi died in 1987 from injuries sustained in a fall from a third-storey apartment landing. His death was officially ruled a suicide, although that has been disputed by some of his friends and associates and attributed to an accident.


Biography


Early life

Levi was born in 1919 in
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, Italy, at Corso Re Umberto 75, into a liberal Jewish family. His father, Cesare Levi (1878–1942), worked for the manufacturing firm Ganz and spent much of his time working abroad in Hungary, where Ganz was based. Cesare was an avid reader and
autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...
. Levi's mother, Esterina (Ester Luzzati Levi, 1895–1991), known to everyone as Rina, was well educated, having attended the . She too was an avid reader, played the piano, and spoke fluent French.Angier p. 50. The marriage between Rina and Cesare had been arranged by Rina's father. On their wedding day, Rina's father, Cesare Luzzati, gave Rina the apartment at , where Primo Levi lived for almost his entire life. In 1921, Anna Maria, Levi's sister, was born, and he remained close to her all her life. In 1925, he entered the primary school in Turin. A thin and delicate child, he was shy and considered himself ugly, but excelled academically. His school record includes long periods of absence during which he was tutored at home, at first by Emilia Glauda and then by Marisa Zini, daughter of philosopher Zino Zini. The children spent summers with their mother in the Waldensian valleys south-west of Turin, where Rina rented a farmhouse. His father remained in the city, partly because of his dislike of the rural life, but also because of his infidelities. In September 1930, Levi entered the Royal Gymnasium a year ahead of normal entrance requirements. In class, he was the youngest, the shortest and the cleverest, as well as being the only Jew. Only two boys there bullied him for being Jewish, but their animosity was traumatic. In August 1932, following two years attendance at the
Talmud Torah Talmud Torah (, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew language, H ...
school in Turin to pick up the elements of doctrine and culture, he sang in the local synagogue for his
Bar Mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...
. In 1933, as was expected of all young Italian schoolboys, he joined the Avanguardisti movement for young
Fascists Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social h ...
. He avoided rifle drill by joining the ski division, and spent every Saturday during the season on the slopes above Turin. As a young boy, Levi was plagued by illness, particularly chest infections, but he was keen to participate in physical activity. In his teens, Levi and a few friends would sneak into a disused sports stadium and conduct athletic competitions. In July 1934, at the age of 15, he sat the exams for the Liceo Classico D'Azeglio, a
lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...
(
sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...
or
senior high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
) specializing in the
classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
, and was admitted that year. The school was noted for its
anti-Fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
teachers, among them the philosopher
Norberto Bobbio Norberto Bobbio (; 18 October 1909 – 9 January 2004) was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily '' La Stampa''. Bobbio was a social lib ...
, and Cesare Pavese, who later became one of Italy's best-known novelists. Levi continued to be bullied during his time at the Lyceum, although six other Jews were in his class. Upon reading ''Concerning the Nature of Things'' by English scientist Sir William Bragg, Levi decided that he wanted to be a
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
. In 1937, he was summoned before the War Ministry and accused of ignoring a draft notice from the Italian Royal Navy. It was one day before he was to write a final examination on Italy's participation in the Spanish Civil War, based on a quote from
Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...
: "We have the singular merit of being brave to the utmost degree." Distracted and terrified by the draft accusation, he failed the exam—the first poor grade of his life—and was devastated. His father was able to keep him out of the Navy by enrolling him in the Fascist militia (''Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale''). He remained a member through his first year of university, until the passage of the Italian Racial Laws of 1938 forced his expulsion. Levi later recounted that series of events in the short story ''Fra Diavolo on the Po''. He retook and passed his final examinations and, in October, enrolled at the
University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...
to study chemistry. As one of 80 candidates, he spent three months taking lectures, and in February, after passing his ''colloquio'' (oral examination), he was selected as one of 20 to move on to the full-time chemistry curriculum. During the liberal period in Italy, as well as in the first decade of the Fascist regime, Jews held many public positions, and were prominent in literature, science and politics. In 1929, Mussolini signed the
Lateran Treaty The Lateran Treaty (; ) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between Italy under Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman question. The treaty and ass ...
with the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, which established Catholicism as the State religion, allowed the Church to influence many sectors of education and public life, and relegated other religions to the status of "tolerated cults". In 1936, Italy's conquest of
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
, and the expansion of what the regime regarded as the Italian "colonial empire", brought the question of "race" to the forefront. In the context set by those events, and the 1939 alliance with Hitler's Germany, the situation of the Jews of Italy changed radically. In July 1938, a group of prominent Italian scientists and intellectuals published the " Manifesto of Race", a mixture of racial and ideological
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
theories from ancient and modern sources. The treatise formed the basis of the Italian Racial Laws of October 1938. After their enactment, Italian Jews lost their basic civil rights, positions in public offices, and their assets. Their books were prohibited, and Jewish writers could no longer publish in magazines owned by
Aryans ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''),Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood i ...
. Jewish students who had begun their course of study were permitted to continue, but new Jewish students were barred from entering university. Levi had matriculated a year earlier than scheduled, enabling him to take a degree. In 1939, Levi discovered a passion for mountain hiking. A friend, Sandro Delmastro, taught him how to hike, and they spent many weekends in the mountains above Turin. Levi later wrote about that time in the chapter "Iron" in ''The Periodic Table:'' “To see Sandro in the mountains reconciled you with the world and made you forget the nightmare weighing on Europe ..He stirred in me a new communion with earth and sky, in which my need for freedom, the fullness of my powers, and the hunger to understand things that had driven me to chemistry converged.” In June 1940, as an ally of Germany, Italy declared war against Britain and France, and the first Allied air raids on Turin began two days later. Levi's studies continued during the bombardments. The family suffered additional strain as his father became bedridden with
bowel cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...
.


Chemistry

Because of the new racial laws and the increasing intensity of Fascist action, Levi had difficulty finding an advisor for his Ph.D. dissertation, which was on the subject of the Walden inversion, a study of the asymmetry of the
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
atom. Eventually taken on by Dr. Nicolò Dallaporta, Levi graduated in mid-1941 with full marks and merit, having submitted additional theses on
x-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
s and
electrostatic energy Electric potential energy is a potential energy (measured in joules) that results from conservative Coulomb forces and is associated with the configuration of a particular set of point charges within a defined system. An ''object'' may be sa ...
. His degree certificate bore the remark: "of Jewish race". The racial laws prevented Levi from finding a suitable permanent job after graduation. In December 1941, he received an informal job offer from an Italian officer to work as a chemist at an
asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...
mine in San Vittore. The project was to extract
nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
from the mine spoil, a challenge he accepted with pleasure. Levi later understood that, if successful, he would be aiding the German war effort, which was suffering nickel shortages in the production of armaments. The job required Levi to work under a false name with false papers. Three months later, in March 1942, his father died. Levi left the mine in June to work in
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
for the Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Wander AG, on a project to extract an anti-diabetic from vegetable matter. Recruited through a fellow student at Turin University, he took the job in a Swiss company to escape the Italian race laws. It soon became clear that the project had no chance of succeeding, but it was in no-one's interest to say so. In July 1943, King
Victor Emmanuel III Victor Emmanuel III (; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. A member of the House of Savoy, he also reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1936 to 1941 and King of the Albani ...
deposed Mussolini and appointed a new government under Marshal
Pietro Badoglio Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino ( , ; 28 September 1871 – 1 November 1956), was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regim ...
, which prepared to sign the
Armistice of Cassibile The Armistice of Cassibile ( Italian: ''Armistizio di Cassibile'') was an armistice that was signed on 3 September 1943 by Italy and the Allies, marking the end of hostilities between Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was made public ...
with the Allies. When the armistice was made public on 8 September, the Germans occupied northern and central Italy, liberated Mussolini from imprisonment, and appointed him as head of the
Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...
, a
puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...
in German-occupied northern Italy. Levi returned to Turin to find his mother and sister in refuge in their holiday home called 'Lo Saccarello' (literally, the Sackcloth) in the village of Chieri in the hills outside Turin. The three moved to Saint-Vincent in the
Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...
, where they could be hidden. Being pursued as Jews, many of whom had already been interned by the authorities, they moved up the hillside to Amay in the , a rebellious area highly suitable for
guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...
activities.


Italian resistance movement

The
Italian resistance movement The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...
became increasingly active in the German-occupied zone. Levi and some comrades took to the foothills of the Alps and, in October, formed a partisan group in the hope of being affiliated with the liberal ''
Giustizia e Libertà Giustizia e Libertà (; ) was an Italian anti-fascist resistance movement, active from 1929 to 1945.James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224. The movement was cofounded by ...
''. Untrained for such a venture, he and his companions were arrested by the Fascist militia on 13 December 1943. Believing he would be shot as an Italian partisan, Levi confessed to being Jewish. He was sent to the internment camp at Fossoli near
Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...
. Levi later wrote the following about the conditions at Fossoli:


Auschwitz

Fossoli was taken over by the Germans, who started arranging the deportations of the Jews to eastern concentration and death camps. On 21 February 1944, on the second of the transports, Levi and other inmates were transported in twelve cramped cattle trucks to Monowitz, one of the three main camps in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Levi (record number 174517) spent eleven months there before the camp was liberated by the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
on 27 January 1945. Before the arrival of the Russians, inmates were sorted according to whether they could work or not. An acquaintance of Levi's said that neither classification would make any difference in the end. He declared he was unable to work and was killed immediately. Of the 650 Italian Jews in his transport, Levi was one of only twenty who left the camps alive. The average life expectancy of a new entrant to the camp was three to four months. Levi knew some German from reading German publications on chemistry, and he worked to adjust quickly to life in the camp without attracting the attention of the privileged inmates. He used bread to pay a more experienced Italian prisoner for German lessons and understanding how to cope in Auschwitz. He was given a smuggled soup ration each day by Lorenzo Perrone, an Italian civilian bricklayer who was working at Auschwitz as a
forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
er. Levi's professional qualifications were useful to the Germans and, in mid-November 1944, he secured a position as an assistant in
IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...
's Buna Werke laboratory that was aiming to produce
synthetic rubber A synthetic rubber is an artificial elastomer. They are polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About of rubber is produced annually in the United States, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Synthetic rubber, just like natural ru ...
. By avoiding hard labour in freezing outdoor temperatures he was able to survive, as well as by stealing materials from the laboratory and trading them for extra food. Shortly before the camp was liberated by the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
, he fell ill with
scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...
and was placed in the camp's sanatorium (camp hospital). On 18 January 1945, the SS hurriedly evacuated the camp as the Red Army approached, forcing all but the gravely ill on a long
death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...
to a site further from the front. The march resulted in the deaths of the vast majority of the remaining prisoners, but Levi's illness spared him that fate. Although liberated on 27 January 1945, Levi did not reach Turin until 19 October 1945. After spending some time in a
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
camp for former concentration camp inmates, he embarked on an arduous journey home in the company of former Italian
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
who had been part of the Italian Army in Russia. The long railway journey home to Turin took him on a circuitous route from Poland, through Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Austria, and Germanyan arduous journey described especially in his 1963 work '' The Truce''noting the millions of displaced people on the roads and trains throughout Europe in that period.


Writing career


1946–1960

Levi was almost unrecognisable on his return to Turin. Malnutrition edema had bloated his face. Sporting a scrawny beard and wearing an old
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
uniform, he returned to Corso Re Umberto. The next few months gave him an opportunity to recover physically, re-establish contact with surviving friends and family, and start looking for work. Levi suffered from the psychological trauma of his experiences. Having been unable to find work in Turin, he started to look for work in Milan. On his train journeys, he began to tell people he met stories about his time at Auschwitz. At a Jewish New Year party in 1946, he met Lucia Morpurgo, who offered to teach him to dance, and Levi fell in love with her. At about that time, he started writing poetry about his experiences in Auschwitz. On 21 January 1946, he started work at DUCO, a Du Pont Company paint factory outside Turin. Because of the extremely limited train service, Levi stayed in the factory dormitory during the week, which gave him the opportunity to write undisturbed, and he started the first draft of '' If This Is a Man''. Every day, as memories came to him, he scribbled notes on train tickets and scraps of paper. At the end of February, he had ten pages detailing the last ten days between the German evacuation and the arrival of the Red Army. For the next ten months, the book took shape in his dormitory as he typed up his recollections each night. On 22 December 1946, the manuscript was complete. Lucia, who now reciprocated Levi's love, helped him to edit it, to make the narrative flow more naturally. In January 1947, Levi was taking the finished manuscript around to publishers. It was rejected by Einaudi on the advice of Natalia Ginzburg and, in the United States, it was turned down by
Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...
on the advice of rabbi Joshua Liebman, an opinion which contributed to the neglect of his work in that country for four decades. The social wounds of the war years were still too fresh, and he had no literary experience to give him a reputation as an author. Eventually, Levi found a publisher, Franco Antonicelli, through a friend of his sister.Thomson p. 246. Antonicelli was an amateur publisher, but as an active anti-Fascist, he supported the substance of the book. At the end of June 1947, Levi suddenly left DUCO and teamed up with an old friend Alberto Salmoni to run a chemical consultancy from the top floor of Salmoni's parents' house. Many of Levi's experiences of that time found their way into his later writing. He and Salmoni made most of their money from making and supplying stannous chloride for mirror makers, delivering the unstable chemical by bicycle across the city. Attempts to make lipsticks from reptile excreta, and a coloured enamel to coat teeth, were turned into short stories. Accidents in their laboratory filled the Salmoni house with unpleasant smells and corrosive gases. In September 1947, Levi married Lucia and, a month later, on 11 October, ''If This Is a Man'' was published, with a print run of 2,000 copies. In April 1948, with Lucia pregnant with their first child, Levi decided that the life of an independent chemist was too precarious. He agreed to work for Accatti in the family paint business, which traded under the name SIVA. In October 1948, his daughter Lisa was born. During that period, his friend Lorenzo Perrone's physical and psychological health declined. Lorenzo had been a civilian forced worker in Auschwitz, who for six months had given part of his ration and a piece of bread to Levi without asking for anything in return, and the gesture saved Levi's life. In his memoir, Levi contrasted Lorenzo with everyone else in the camp, prisoners and guards alike, as someone who managed to preserve his humanity. After the war, Lorenzo could not cope with the memories of what he had seen and descended into alcoholism. Levi made several trips to rescue his old friend from the streets but, in 1952, Lorenzo died. In gratitude for his kindness in Auschwitz, Levi named both of his children, Lisa Lorenza and Renzo, after him. In 1950, having demonstrated his chemical talents to Accatti, Levi was promoted to Technical Director at SIVA. As SIVA's principal chemist and troubleshooter, Levi travelled abroad. He made several trips to Germany and carefully engineered his contacts with senior German businessmen and scientists. Wearing short-sleeved shirts, he made sure they saw the concentration camp number
tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes ...
ed on his arm. He became involved in organisations pledged to remembering and recording the horror of the camps. In 1954, he visited
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
to mark the ninth anniversary of the camp's liberation from the Nazis. Levi dutifully attended many such anniversary events over the years and recounted his own experiences. In July 1957, his son Renzo was born. Despite a positive review by
Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...
in , only 1,500 copies of ''If This Is a Man'' were sold. In 1958, Einaudi, a major publisher, published it in a revised form and promoted it. In 1958 Stuart Woolf, in close collaboration with Levi, translated ''If This Is a Man'' into English, and it was published in the UK by Orion Press in 1959. Also in 1959, Heinz Riedt, under close supervision by Levi, translated the book into German. Because one of Levi's primary reasons for writing the book was to get the German people to realise what had been done in their name, and to accept at least partial responsibility, that translation was perhaps the most significant to him.


1961–1974

Levi began writing ''The Truce'' early in 1961. It was published in 1963, almost 16 years after his first book, and won the first annual
Premio Campiello The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A jury of literary experts (''giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ...
literary award that year. It is often published in one volume with ''If This Is a Man'', because it covers his long return through eastern Europe from Auschwitz. Levi's reputation was growing, and he regularly contributed articles to , the Turin newspaper. He worked to gain a reputation as a writer about subjects other than surviving Auschwitz. In 1963, he suffered his first major bout of depression. At the time he had two young children, and a responsible job at a factory where accidents could and did have terrible consequences. He travelled and became a public figure. But the memory of what happened less than twenty years earlier still burned in his mind. Today, the link between such trauma and depression is better understood. Doctors prescribed several different drugs over the years, but they had variable efficacy and side effects. In 1964, Levi collaborated with the state broadcaster RAI on a radio play based on ''If This Is a Man'' and, in 1966, with a theatre production. Under the pen name of Damiano Malabaila, he published two volumes of science fiction short stories which explored ethical and philosophical questions. They imagined the effects on society of inventions which many would consider beneficial, but which, he saw, would have serious implications. Many of the stories from the two books (''Natural Histories'', 1966) and (''Structural Defect'', 1971) were later collected and published in English as ''The Sixth Day and Other Tales''. In 1974, Levi arranged to go into semi-retirement from SIVA in order to have more time to write. He also wanted to escape the burden of responsibility involved in managing the paint plant.


1975–1987

In 1975, a collection of Levi's poetry was published under the title (''The Bremen Beer Hall''), which was published in English as ''Shema: Collected Poems''. He wrote two other highly praised memoirs, (''Moments of Reprieve'', 1978) and (''The Periodic Table'', 1975). '' Moments of Reprieve'' deals with characters he observed during imprisonment. '' The Periodic Table'' is a collection of mostly autobiographical short stories, and also includes two fictional stories that he wrote in 1941 while being employed at the asbestos mine in San Vittore. Each story is named after a chemical element and the subject matter of each story is related to that element. On 19 October 2006, the
Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
in London declared that ''The Periodic Table'' was the best science book ever written. In 1977, at the age of 58, Levi retired as a part-time consultant at the SIVA paint factory to devote himself full-time to writing. Like all his books, ''La chiave a stella'' (1978), published in the US in 1986 as ''The Monkey Wrench'' and in the UK in 1987 as ''The Wrench'', is difficult to categorize. Some reviews describe it as a collection of stories about work and workers, told by a narrator who resembles Levi. Others have called it a novel, created by the linked stories and characters. Set in the
Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
-run Russian company town of Togliattigrad, it portrays the engineer as a hero on whom others depend. The Piedmontese engineer Faussone travelled the world as an expert in erecting cranes and bridges. Most of the stories involve the solution of industrial problems by the use of troubleshooting skills, and many stories come from the author's personal experience. The underlying philosophy is that pride in one's work is necessary for fulfilment. '' The Wrench'' won the Strega Prize in 1979 and brought Levi a wider audience in Italy, though left-wing critics regretted that he did not describe the harsh working conditions on the assembly lines at Fiat. In 1984, Levi published his only
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
, '' If Not Now, When?''—or his second novel, if ''The Monkey Wrench'' is counted. It traces the fortunes of a group of
Jewish partisans Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance under Nazi rule, Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators during W ...
behind German lines during World War II as they seek to survive and continue their fight against the occupier. With the ultimate goal of reaching
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
to take part in the development of a Jewish national home, the partisan band reaches Poland and then German territory. There, the surviving members are officially received as
displaced persons Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR defines 'forced displaceme ...
in territory held by the Western allies. Finally, they succeed in reaching Italy, on their way to Palestine. The novel won both the and the . The book was inspired by events during Levi's train journey home after liberation from the concentration camp, which was narrated in ''The Truce''. At one point in the journey, a band of Zionists hitched their wagon to the refugee train. Levi was impressed by their strength, resolve, organisation and sense of purpose. Levi became a major literary figure in Italy, and his books were translated into many other languages. ''The Truce'' became a standard text in Italian schools. In 1985, he flew to the United States for a 20-day speaking tour. Although he was accompanied by Lucia, the trip was very draining for him. In the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, his early works were not accepted by censors because he had portrayed Soviet soldiers as slovenly and disorderly rather than heroic. In
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, a country formed partly by Jewish survivors who lived through horrors similar to those Levi described, many of his works were not translated and published until after his death. In March 1985, he wrote the introduction to the re-publication of the autobiography of
Rudolf Höss Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß, or Hoess; ; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a German SS officer and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II, he w ...
, who was commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940 to 1943. In it, he writes: "It's filled with evil ... and reading it is agony." Also in 1985, a volume of his essays, previously published in , was published under the title (''Other People's Trades''). Levi used to write the stories and hoard them, releasing them to at the rate of about one a week. The essays ranged from book reviews and ponderings about strange things in nature, to fictional short stories. In 1986, his book ('' The Drowned and the Saved'') was published. In it, he tries to analyse why people behaved the way they did at Auschwitz and why some survived whilst others perished. In his typical style, he makes no judgments but presents the evidence and asks the questions. For example, one essay examines what he calls "the grey zone": those Jews who did the Germans' dirty work for them and kept the rest of the prisoners in line. He questioned what made a concert violinist behave as a callous taskmaster. Also in 1986, a collection of short stories, previously published in , was assembled and published as , some of which were published in the English volume '' The Mirror Maker''. At the time of his death in April 1987, Levi was working on another selection of essays called ''The Double Bond'', which took the form of letters to . The essays are very personal in nature, and approximately five or six chapters of the manuscript exist. Carole Angier, in her biography of Levi, describes how she tracked some of these essays down. She wrote that others were being kept from public view by Levi's close friends, to whom he gave them, and they might have been destroyed.


Posthumous publications

In March 2007, ''
Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...
'' published an English translation of Levi's story , about a fictitious weapon that is fatal at close range but harmless more than a meter away. It originally appeared in his 1971 book but was published in English for the first time by ''Harper's''. ''A Tranquil Star'', a collection of seventeen stories translated into English by Ann Goldstein and Alessandra Bastagli was published in April 2007. In 2015, Penguin published ''The Complete Works of Primo Levi'', ed. Ann Goldstein. This is the first time that Levi's entire oeuvre has been translated into English.


Death

Levi died on 11 April 1987 after a fall from the interior landing of his third-story apartment in Turin to the ground floor below. The coroner ruled his death a suicide. Three of his biographers (Angier, Thomson and Anissimov) agreed, but other writers (including at least one who knew him personally) questioned that determination. In his later life, Levi indicated that he was suffering from depression. Factors in that likely included responsibility for his elderly mother and mother-in-law, with whom he was living, and lingering traumatic memories of his experiences. According to the chief rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff, Levi telephoned him for the first time ten minutes before the incident. Levi said he found it impossible to look at his mother, who was ill with cancer, without recalling the faces of people stretched out on benches in Auschwitz. The Nobel laureate and fellow Holocaust survivor
Elie Wiesel Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates#1980, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel bibliogra ...
said, at the time, "Primo Levi died at Auschwitz forty years later." However, several of Levi's friends and associates have argued otherwise. The Oxford sociologist Diego Gambetta noted that Levi left no suicide note, nor any other indication that he was considering suicide. Documents and testimony suggested that he had plans for both the short- and longer-term at the time. In the days before his death, he had complained to his physician of dizziness due to an operation he had undergone some three weeks earlier. After visiting the apartment complex, Gambetta suggested that Levi lost his balance and fell accidentally. The Nobel laureate
Rita Levi-Montalcini Rita Levi-Montalcini ( , ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian neurobiologist. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor ( ...
, a close friend of Levi, agreed. "As a chemical engineer," she said, "he might have chosen a better way f exiting the worldthan jumping into a narrow stairwell with the risk of remaining paralyzed."


Legacy


Holocaust writing

Levi is frequently referred to as a "Holocaust writer", a label he disliked. However, he is considered to have authored some of the most important writing about the Holocaust, which has greatly contributed to the memory and understanding of that disaster. Philip Roth eulogized him as someone who "set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose".
Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...
has credited Levi's work with assisting him in writing his own novel, '' The Zone of Interest'', calling him "the visionary of the Holocaust, its presiding spirit and the most perceptive of all writers on this subject."


Posthumous honours

* In 1995, five health and human rights organizations established the Primo Levi Center in Paris to provide services to torture survivors. The center was named for Levi because his name is "synonymous with the refusal of inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment". * The Primo Levi Center, a non-profit organisation dedicated to studying the history and culture of Italian Jewry, was established in New York City in 2003. * In 2008, the City of Turin and other partners established the International Primo Levi Studies Center to preserve and promote Levi's legacy. * Beginning in 2017, the Primo Levi Prize has been awarded by the German Chemical Society and the Italian Chemical Society to honour chemists for their commitment to human rights. * In 2019, Levi's 100th birthday was commemorated throughout the world, including the United States, Portugal, and Italy. * The SIVA factory has been turned into the Museo della Chimica, a chemistry museum for children. Levi's former office now holds an exhibit about his life.


In popular culture

* ''Till My Tale is Told: Women's Memoirs of the Gulag'' (1999), uses a part of the quatrain by Coleridge quoted by Levi in ''The Drowned and the Saved'' as its title. *
Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...
' book '' The Portable Atheist'', a collection of extracts of
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
texts, is dedicated to the memory of Levi, "who had the moral fortitude to refuse false consolation even while enduring the 'selection' process in Auschwitz". The dedication quotes Levi in '' The Drowned and the Saved'', asserting, "I too entered the Lager as a nonbeliever, and as a nonbeliever I was liberated and have lived to this day." * A quotation from Levi appears on the sleeve of the second album by the Welsh rock band
Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Wales, Welsh Rock music, rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, in 1986. The band consists of Nicky Wire (bass guitar, lyrics) and cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, le ...
, titled '' Gold Against the Soul''. The quote is from Levi's poem "Song of Those Who Died in Vain". *
David Blaine David Blaine (born David Blaine White; April 4, 1973) is an American magician, mentalist, and Endurance art, endurance performer. Born in New York City, Blaine became interested in magic at a very young age. He gained prominence in 1997, when h ...
has Primo Levi's Auschwitz camp number, 174517, tattooed on his left forearm. * In Lavie Tidhar's novel, ''A Man Lies Dreaming'', the protagonist encounters Levi and Ka-Tzetnik in Auschwitz and witnesses them discuss how they should write about the Holocaust. Levi says they should be "accurate and dispassionate" while Ka-Tzetnik advocates "the language of ..pulp". *In the pilot episode of '' Black Earth Rising'', Rwandan genocide survivor Kate Ashby has a therapy session addressing her survivors' guilt and suicide attempt. She tells her therapist that she has read the Primo Levi book he'd assigned her and that if she chooses to attempt suicide, she'll "take a leaf out of Mr Levi's book and jump straight out the window." *The last track on '' The Noise'' by
Peter Hammill Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer-songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and ...
is entitled "Primo on the Parapet".


Views


Nazi death camps versus Soviet gulags

Levi vigorously repudiated historical revisionist attitudes in German historiography that emerged in the ''
Historikerstreit The ''Historikerstreit'' (, "historians' dispute") was a dispute in the late 1980s in West Germany between conservative and left-of-center academics and other intellectuals about how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German histor ...
'', led by the works of people like
Andreas Hillgruber Andreas Fritz Hillgruber (18 January 1925 – 8 May 1989) was a Conservatism, conservative German historian who was influential as a military and diplomatic historian who played a leading role in the ''Historikerstreit'' of the 1980s. In his contr ...
and Ernst Nolte, who drew parallels between Nazism and Stalinism. Levi rejected the idea that the labor camp system depicted in
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...
's ''
The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' () is a three-volume nonfiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident. It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian ...
'' and that of the Nazi (; see
Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
) were comparable. The death rate in Stalin's gulags was 30% at worst, he wrote, while in the extermination camps, he estimated it to be 90–98%. His view was that the Nazi death camps and the attempted annihilation of the Jews were a horror unique in history because the goal was the complete destruction of a race by one that saw itself as superior. He noted that it was highly organized and mechanized, and entailed the degradation of Jews to the point of using their ashes as materials for paths. The purpose of the Nazi
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...
s was not the same as the purpose of Stalin's ''
gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
s'', Levi wrote in an appendix to ''If This Is a Man'', though it is a "lugubrious comparison between two models of hell." The goal of the was the extermination of the Jewish race in Europe, and no one could renounce Judaism, because the Nazis considered Jews a
racial group Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...
rather than a religious group. Levi, along with most of Turin's Jewish intellectuals, had not been religiously observant before
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, but the Italian racial laws and the Nazi camps impressed his identity as a Jew upon him. Of the many children who were deported to the camps, almost all of them were murdered.


German people

According to biographer Ian Thomson, Levi intentionally excluded from ''If This Is a Man'' any experiences with Germans who helped him and included "collective condemnations, coloured by the author's rage, of the German people". However, Levi's opinion of Germans improved through his friendship with a German woman named Hety Schmitt-Maas. Her father had lost his job and she had been expelled from school due to their anti-Nazi beliefs. For 17 years, Levi and Schmitt-Maas discussed "their shared hatred of Nazism" together in their letters to each other until Schmitt-Maas died in 1983. Almost forty years after ''If This Is A Man'' was published, Levi stated that he did not hate German people because hating a whole ethnic group would be too much like Nazism. However, he also stated that he did not forgive "the culprits". According to Levi, the German people largely knew about the concentration camps but did not know the extent of the atrocities occurring there. However, "most Germans didn’t know because they didn’t want to know. Because, indeed, they wanted not to know".


Works


Adaptations

* Five of Levi's poems (''Shema'', ''25 Febbraio 1944'', ''Il canto del corvo'', ''Cantare'' and ''Congedo'') have been set to music by Simon Sargon in the
song cycle A song cycle () is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combinat ...
''Shema: 5 Poems of Primo Levi'' in 1987. In 2021 the work was performed by Megan Marie Hart during the opening event of the festival year ' commemorating the first documented mention of Jewish communities in the territory of present-day Germany. * The 1997 film ('' The Truce''), starring John Turturro, was adapted from his 1963 memoir of the same title and recounts Levi's long journey home with other displaced people after his liberation from Auschwitz. * '' If This Is a Man'' was adapted by Antony Sher into a one-man stage production '' Primo'' in 2004. A version of this production was broadcast on
BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002
in the UK on 20 September 2007.


References

Notes Bibliography * * * * * Further reading * Giffuni, Cathe. "An English Bibliography of the Writings of Primo Levi," ''Bulletin of Bibliography'', Vol. 50 No. 3 September 1993, pp. 213–221.


External links


Announcement of ''The Complete Works of Primo Levi''
*
International Primo Levi Studies Center

Centro Primo Levi New York

"Primo Levi's journeys of peace"
an article in th
TLS
by Clive Sinclair, 11 July 2007

Includes writing by Levi

page by the Operatist who composed in honor of Levi

by Diego Gambetta, Boston Review, Summer 1999 issue. * *
Primo Levi's house

BBC Interview with Primo Levi

Thames Television interview from 1972
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levi, Primo 1919 births 1987 deaths 1987 suicides 20th-century Italian Jews 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian chemists 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century memoirists Action Party (Italy) politicians Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Fossoli camp survivors Italian anti-fascists Italian atheists Italian male novelists Italian male poets Italian male short story writers Italian science fiction writers Italian memoirists Italian Holocaust survivors Writers about the Holocaust Jewish memoirists Jewish atheists Jewish anti-fascists Jewish chemists Jewish Italian writers Jewish partisans Jews in the Italian resistance Levites Members of Giustizia e Libertà Modernist writers Scientists from Turin Premio Campiello winners Strega Prize winners Suicides by jumping in Italy University of Turin alumni Unsolved deaths Viareggio Prize winners