TEN : Chemical Examination

“I already know the Lager well enough to realize that one should not ever anticipate, especially optimistically.”

In many stories and movies that have been created, always, hope is considered the best of things that are vital for a man’s survival. In the movie, ‘Shawshank Redemption’, the main character, Andy Dufrain quotes near the end of the movie to his dear friend Red, “hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.” And as proof from the movie, Andy escaped and lived a better life because he had not given up hope during the duration of his time in prison.With the evidence from many aspects of life, I too, believed that hope could change anything and motivate any action to become successful. I strongly held belief that hope could even give life to dying person. But as I read ‘Survival in Auschwitz’ I realized that in some circumstances, hope could be futile, and in some cases, even deadly. That was with Primo Levi and his fellow comrades when they were receiving chemical examinations, which would change the future of their concentration camp environments. As where if passing the examination, they would work in a ‘better’ surrounding with probably less manual labor, and opposing to this matter, if failed to qualify the needs of the Kommando 98, they would return to their previous lives. This chapter tells that indeed, a man can be ripped of more than his possessions. Through the portrayals of Primo Levi, I understood slightly the conditions of Auschwitz. He tended to think that temporary comfort through an anticipation of some sort was rather a hindrance to his survival. Nonetheless, because of his examination, he was able to survive Auschwitz without being a selective member.




“Because that look was not one between two men; and if I had known how completely to explain the nature of that look, which came as if across the glass window of an aquarium between two beings who live in different worlds…”

Also, another major topic that I thought was important was the fact that the German inspector looked upon the prisoners with a condescending attitude. I too can sometimes feel this look upon some Korean parents who often asks this question to me: “What school do you go to?” Whenever I answer them with “TCIS” they often think me as a student who couldn’t endure the so-called “good Korean education” and was a “failure” and therefore going for a lower state of study. But in fact, they really don’t know how TCIS functions. They do not know even the slightest details of TCIS and speak whatever they want to. This shouldn’t be reality because there are benefactors of a foreign school, sometimes, even better opportunities than Korean schools.