The Drowned and the Saved

Primo Levi

While I have already posted about Chapter 3 of this book, "Shame," I will do a quick overview of the other chapters in one post, as they were all assigned together. Following will be a reaction to the book as a whole.

Chapter 1
"The Memory of the Offense"

Although The Drowned and the Saved does have a preface, this first chapter functions almost as an introduction, with a discussion of memory of the Holocaust from the point of view of the victims, the perpetrators, and everyone else. At the close of the chapter, Levi apologizes for the great influence of memory on his book, calling it "drenched in memory." However, he continues, stating that while the book draws heavily from memory, the memories are true, useful, and should be taken as such.

This chapter is largely a philosophical discussion of memory as a concept, and the ways in which it is mutated based on who is remembering, and what the memory is. For example, he points to the justifications characteristic of Nazi memories - "I was forced to," "I was brainwashed," etc.

Significantly, Levi makes sure to emphasize the traumatic nature of memory - remembering a traumatic memory reinscribes the trauma, and the act of remembering is in itself traumatic.

Chapter 2
"The Gray Zone"

This chapter discusses the moral ambiguities that occurred out of necessity in the camp environment. Specifically, the "gray zone" refers to a state in which moral rectitude becomes impossible due to dire conditions, and as such feelings such as solidarity diminish in favor of pure survival.

The aim of this chapter seems to be to emphasize the ease at which moral ambiguity arises. Levi explores the intersections of destitution and power by using the examples of the camp kapos, prisoners who kept order with violence towards other prisoners, the "Special Squads" of prisoners charged with maintaining the crematoria, but rewarded with better clothing and nourishment, and Chaim Rumkowski, the president of the Lodz ghetto in Poland.

Many times in the chapter, he implores the reader to "forgive" those who acted in the gray zone, highlighting the dehumanizing nature of the Holocaust.

Chapter 4
"Communicating"

In this chapter, which highlights the language barriers in the Lagers as well as the language specific to them, Levi uses the example of communication to comment on human relationships within the camp.

The inability to understand German could be fatal in Auschwitz, the camp Levi was interred, because of the violence the SS guards used against the prisoners who did not immediately follow their commands, even if it was because they did not understand them. Further, the guards and even the prisoners developed a kind of German (called LTI) that was far cruder, full of curse words and referring to the prisoners with words that in traditional German would refer only to animals. Because he entered the camp speaking some German as a chemist, Levi writes that he had the "treasure of words."

Further, knowledge of Yiddish was a currency in the camp environment. As an Italian Jew, Levi did not know Yiddish, and there was a sort of hierarchy based on the knowledge of this traditionally Jewish tongue that from which Levi was initially rejected.

Closing his chapter on communication, Levi discusses how access to the news became a priority and a source of solidarity in the camp. Isolation from communication with and knowledge of the outside world were traumatic experiences for the prisoners.

Chapter 5
"Useless Violence"

In this chapter, Levi differentiates interestingly between "useless" and "useful" forms of violence. With extermination of the Jews as a Nazi aim, Levi says that the gassing and burning of the victims was useful, because it furthered their goal. However, actions like the mandatory military-style making of the prisoners' moldy camp beds, and the defilement of the homes of displaced Jews do not fall into this rational framework, and as such should be considered useless violences.

Again and again his book, Levi points to the totalitarian system as being responsible for the proliferation of this level of atrocity.

In this section Levi also discusses dignity. Despite the knowledge that the work they were doing was for the Nazi cause, the prisoners worked hard in order to preserve the dignity of a job well done.

Chapter 6
"The Intellectual in Auschwitz"

This chapter is based on a discussion of the philosopher Jean Améry, an intellectual who was also imprisoned in a concentration camp and eventually committed suicide. Levi discusses in this chapter the dynamics of being an intellectual, and further, a "believer" in the camps.

As an intellectual, Levi writes, he was unaccustomed to the manual labor and physical fighting so characteristic of the camps. Further, he writes that he was more humiliated by these, and by the camp in general, than the non-educated prisoners were. Finally, Levi says he lacked the sort of simple acceptance of a horrible situation that some of the working-class prisoners displayed.

However, Levi was granted privilege in the camp based on his knowledge of chemistry, indeed, it led to better rations and protection for him. Further, Levi writes that his memory of his life before was a valuable link to preserve his identity in the camps, even as he felt himself become more and more dehumanized.

Levi writes that those who were "believers" had an even stronger link to this identity-confirming memory function. Judaism, Zionism, and even Marxism, he writes, acted as guiding forces to many of the prisoners, allowing them to keep hoping for freedom.

Chapter 7
"Stereotypes"

Levi takes this discussion of identity into his next chapter, beginning this chapter on stereotypes with a discussion of the way imprisonment comes to define one's identity.

Levi writes that he is most frequently asked three questions when he discusses his imprisonment, and in this chapter, he responds to them.

The first question is, "Why did you not escape?" Levi responds that escape was nearly impossible, especially given the weakened state of the prisoners, and also, that once one had escaped the camp, they would be lost and friendless in enemy territory. Further, an escaped prisoner could put the whole camp at risk of the SS guards' rage and efforts to find the escaped.

The second question is, "Why did you not rebel?" Levi's answer mirrors that of before - everyone was too weak to rebel. However, he also writes that it would inevitably fail to lead to mass escape, which would be its goal, and that the camp environment was not a place to cultivate leaders. Extremely oppressed people, Levi writes, are usually led to rebellion by someone with the strength to lead.

The final question is, "Why did you not flee before?" Pragmatically, he writes that it was extremely hard to emigrate in Europe at the time, and that people were attached to their homelands. But more importantly, he writes, in a time of mounting nuclear power (the book was first published in 1988), why aren't people fleeing now?

Chapter 8
"Letters from Germans"

In his introduction to the German translation of Survival in Auschwitz, his famous memoir about his time at the camp, Levi tells his German readers that he still cannot understand them. In this chapter he places some of their responses, as well as his replies. This chapter goes in many directions, and while I thought it was useful, I do not know if it necessarily relates to the material we will be looking at in this course.


Having individually summarized all the chapters of this book, I want to relate it back to the course we are creating. I think that this book is too long and heavy for it to be assigned for one class period, even though it is clearly written. I think it is unlikely that anyone will read the whole book. I think perhaps after chapter 5, the rest of the book could be made optional, or encouraged reading.