Commentary on the Weather Used in Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz/ Is This a Man Essay Example

will suffer minute by minute” (Levi 123). The average temperature in the area of Auschwitz during the winter is 25° F but would often enter the negatives and the camp uniforms were highly inadequate for this type of weather (“European). The prisoners would have to “toil the whole day in the wind, with temperatures below freezing, wearing only a shirt, underpants, cloth jacket and trousers…” (Levi 123).

The severe frigidness was a torture technique used by the Nazi’s and it prompted the mental breakdowns of prisoners. Conditions were so feared that the prisoners “would have gone and touched the electric wire-fence” (Levi 124) because it was the logical way to escape the terrible winters. The cold exacerbated the working conditions and well-being of the inmates. When Primo Levi said, “I push wagons, I work with a shovel, I turn rotten in the rain, I shiver in the wind; already my own body is no longer mine…” (Levi 37), he shows that the impact of slave labor and wintery weather was so brutal that he became detached from his own self.

However, along with winter came longer nights which forced the inmates to “exchange sweats, smells and warmth with someone under the same blanket, and in width little more than two feet.” (Levi 57) Such close proximities and poor sanitation encouraged the spread of sickness and disease. The cold weather weakened the prisoners’ immune systems which lead to the immediate susceptibility of illnesses. An illness, dependent upon the severity or classification of the one injured, can either mean admittance to Ka-Be or the gas chambers. Primo Levi had an injured foot but since he

was considered an economically beneficial Jew, he received medical attention in Ka-Be for the majority of the winter. Winter is also feared because of the selections.

“Last spring the Germans constructed huge tents in an open space in the Lager. For the whole of the good season each of them catered for over a thousand men: now the tents have been taken down and an excess of two thousand guests crowded our huts. We old prisoners knew that the Germans did not like these irregularities and that something would soon happen to reduce our number.” (Levi 124). The selections was a German solution to solve the over-crowding of the concentration camp. The SS subaltern decided which prisoners would live and which would die in a matter of seconds. “We were ninety-six when we arrived, we, the Italians of convoy 174,000; only twenty-nine of us survived until October, and of these, eight went into the selection. We are now twenty-one and the winter has hardly begun.” (Levi 136)

The Implications of Spring and Summer

Winter acted as another enemy toward the prisoners in addition to “the suffering of the day composed of hunger, blows, cold, exhaustion, fear and promiscuity…” (Levi 62). So the transition between winter and spring was euphoric for the prisoners as Primo Levi remarks that the prisoners “only purpose is to reach spring.” (Levi 71). He says this to demonstrate how winter was a huge obstacle and to survive to reach spring was the goal. Spring is a pleasant season and the prisoners had one less thing to battle.

Ziegler even said, with his shoulders pointed to the sun,

“‘Das Schlimmste ist voruber,’” the worst is now over. (Levi 71). The presence of the Sun held a significant meaning. The rising of the Sun helped the prisoners predict the arrival of seasons. “Today the sun rose bright and clear for the first time from the horizon of mud. It is a Polish sun, cold, white and distant, and only warms the skin, but when it dissolves the last mists a murmur ran through our colorless numbers, and when even I felt its lukewarmth through my clothes I understood how men can worship the sun.” (Levi 71).

The camp prisoners rejoiced the arrival of warmer weather. The Greeks show their patronage by standing “closely in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, and sang one of their interminable chants.” (Levi 71). Primo Levi proves how weather can be transformative. He describes the changed Lager environment by saying, “But today the eternal puddles on which a rainbow veil of petroleum trembles, reflect the serene sun. Pipes, rails, boilers, still cold from the freezing of the night, are dripping with dew.” (Levi 73). With the arrival of spring, the Lager environment, including the prisoners, changes consequently.

Closing Primo

Levi explores the physiological concept that, “Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable.” (Levi 17). This concept can be reapplied to weather in Auschwitz. While the cold often battled the camp prisoners, the arrival of spring and summer created immense happiness. However this happiness would soon fade away because the prisoners would eventually face other obstacles, like death, hunger, thirst or illness. After facing these obstacles, the prisoners would return to their original

state of solitude.

“So that as soon as the cold, which throughout the winter had seemed our only enemy, had ceased, we became aware of our hunger; and repeating the same error, we now say: ‘If it was not for the hunger…” (Levi 74). The prisoners cannot escape the void separating them from the perfect happiness. Even after the liberation of the camps, the survivors are forever scarred with the knowledge that a human could possess enough hatred to torment them like so and that “…if you really felt nothing in your heart but suffering and tedium – as sometimes happens, when you really seem to lie on the bottom. ”