Responding to Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz

In Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, Levi states that, “We believe, rather, that the only conclusion to be drawn is that in the face of driving necessity and physical disabilities many social habits and instincts are reduced to silence” (87). He writes this memoir in part because he no longer feels the “driving necessity and physical disabilities,” having escaped Auschwitz, he must not be silent any longer. Like many Holocaust survivors, Levi appears to write his memoir in order to share his experiences with the reader and in his great details, he seems to put together his past, devoting himself to his writing and only dying naturally after he has left his completed memoir. 

In many Holocaust memoirs, the authors have chosen not to include lavish emotion and grief; Levi, however, does express his emotions in each situation. Instead of expressions of emotion, other works often include a plethora of detailed, verbal exchanges between characters while Levi’s memoir includes only one chapter in which he has an in-depth exchange with another person.