The Dehumanization of Prisoners at Auschwitz
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Kirk Hamilton
Western Civilization II
The Dehumanization of Prisoners at Auschwitz
Survival in Auschwitz is an autobiography about Primo Levi’s deportation to the damnation of Auschwitz. , Levi and other Jews were transported to Auschwitz by means of cattle trucks. Of the six-hundred-and-fifty Jews in Levi's shipment, only twenty left Auschwitz alive. Levi notes that the average life expectancy within the camp system was three months for healthy new arrivals capable of work. Levi survived due to a confluence of circumstances. He possessed rudimentary German-language skills and quickly enhanced his abilities. He made fortunate friendships, which allowed him improved food allotments. And during November, 1944, his excellent, formal education in chemistry got him assigned to an indoor chemical laboratory, therefore avoiding months of freezing temperatures and harsh physical work. Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Millions of Jewish men, women, and children were slaughtered by Hitler and his German Nazis during the Holocaust. The dehumanization of thousands of Jews took place simply because prisoners were systematically being stripped of the very things we associate with being human.
Levi spends a great deal of effort developing the theme of the destruction of the human will or soul before the death of the actual physical body. For millions of Jews, forcible deportation to the concentration camps meant murder and cremation. This was not the case for Levi on the other hand. He was deemed capable of physical labor and instead of being instantly killed, was assigned to a forced labor camp. These forced labor camps were composed of young men in excellent physical condition who could partake in physical labor in horrid working conditions. Even given their initial healthy state, survival in the labor camps averaged only...
Western Civilization II
The Dehumanization of Prisoners at Auschwitz
Survival in Auschwitz is an autobiography about Primo Levi’s deportation to the damnation of Auschwitz. , Levi and other Jews were transported to Auschwitz by means of cattle trucks. Of the six-hundred-and-fifty Jews in Levi's shipment, only twenty left Auschwitz alive. Levi notes that the average life expectancy within the camp system was three months for healthy new arrivals capable of work. Levi survived due to a confluence of circumstances. He possessed rudimentary German-language skills and quickly enhanced his abilities. He made fortunate friendships, which allowed him improved food allotments. And during November, 1944, his excellent, formal education in chemistry got him assigned to an indoor chemical laboratory, therefore avoiding months of freezing temperatures and harsh physical work. Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Millions of Jewish men, women, and children were slaughtered by Hitler and his German Nazis during the Holocaust. The dehumanization of thousands of Jews took place simply because prisoners were systematically being stripped of the very things we associate with being human.
Levi spends a great deal of effort developing the theme of the destruction of the human will or soul before the death of the actual physical body. For millions of Jews, forcible deportation to the concentration camps meant murder and cremation. This was not the case for Levi on the other hand. He was deemed capable of physical labor and instead of being instantly killed, was assigned to a forced labor camp. These forced labor camps were composed of young men in excellent physical condition who could partake in physical labor in horrid working conditions. Even given their initial healthy state, survival in the labor camps averaged only...