TWELVE : The Events of the Summer

It is indeed shocking to view how many different qualities were present in those who were retained inside the concentration camps. Most of these qualities that appeared in the men were often hard to even imagine about. Primo Levi had done a great deal of portraying what the men had felt so that the readers could somewhat easily understand the circumstances that these people were in.

Some of the traits that intrigued me was that the men, after their duration in the concentration camps began to lose will to live, had thought that hope would only be a hindrance to their survival, and that they lost self identification.

In chapter 12, Primo Levi especially speaks about how people began to forget who they were as a free man and how difficult it was to remember how the outside of the barbed wire was functioning. During this process, Primo Levi states a man who helped him and maybe, the sole factor of influencing himself to survive Auschwitz. He mentions Lorenzo, someone that had helped in supporting Primo with extra food and equipment, stating that a good deed should be done without a want for recognition or praise.

Through this man, Primo was able to ‘rethink’ that he too was a man. He began to realize how the environment of the camp had influenced him to think that he was no longer a human being but an animal inferior to the Germans. Undeniably, I believe that through a constant repeat of action, the human brain will able to believe anything or forget anything. This was the case for the prisoners in the concentration camps. Through constant degrading actions from the Germans, the prisoners lost their identity as a free man.

The reason this impacted me with great deal was because there was a similar case with the North Koreans. Some time ago, their leader, Kim Jung-IL had brainwashed his people that he was great leader and an absolute being. This was done by constant repeated speeches and therefore, before the people could develop individual opinions on their leader, they began to believe what they were told to believe.

It is hard to acknowledge what had happened in Auschwitz. What is more difficult to acknowledge is that these prisoners had lived without hope or self-identity.