Modern Heroes: Primo Levi - Survivor, Chemist and Author

I recently found out that some people had never heard of Primo Levi. I have since made it my mission to educate the masses. In Italian schools, Primo Levi's poems and books are an integral part of part of the curriculum, and I grew up venerating the silent yet widely heard man who passed away as I began the cycle of elementary school.
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Primo Levi was born in Torino (Turin) in 1919. He studied chemistry at the University of Torino, but had trouble presenting his thesis in 1938 because of the discrimination against Jews. He finally managed to graduate in 1941, but with a thesis in physics. His diploma stated "Of the Jewish race".

Professor Levi then began his carrier as a chemist, which brought him to Milan. When pursuing a carrier became impossible because of the war and his ties to the resistance, he worked for the anti-fascist resistance in northern Italy , and was caught in 1943, along with some friends. 

Betrayed by a fascist who had been posing as one of Levi’s group, Primo reportedly chewed up and swallowed his list of resistance allies. The group was taken to the prison of Fossoli, which was soon taken over by the German troops. As conditions deteriorated, all prisoners were eventually gathered and sent to Auschwitz.
It was February 22, 1944.

"We found out about our destination and this gave us a sense of relief. Auschwitz: the name didn't mean anything to us, at the time" (From: 'If this is a man').

Primo Levi survived the camps, and as a witness he felt he had to write about the absurdity of what went on there. He described the indescribable, so that people would ask themselves why, and examine their conscience . He wrote about his pain in the camp, and about his adventurous way home, in the book 'Se Questo E' un Uomo'- If This is a Man. (Aka Survival in Auschwitz). The book was named after his most famous poem.

What's great about the book is that Primo Levi managed to write objectively, despite having lived through the harrowing trials he described. It was the voice of the observational scientist in him.