Book review: If This is a Man / The Truce

If This Is a Man is a memoir by Jewish Italian writer Primo Levi, first published in 1947. It describes his arrest as a member of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War, and his incarceration in the Auschwitz concentration camp (Monowitz) from February 1944 until the camp was liberated on 27 January 1945.

The Truce describes the author's experiences from the liberation of Auschwitz (Monowitz), until he reaches home in Turin, Italy, after a long journey. He describes the situation in different displaced persons camps after the Second World War.

I'll do TT first, because it is easier. Although not entirely free of horror - we begin in Monowitz, lots or people still die as conditions don't instantly improve, PL is still desperately sick - in the end it turns into a weird picaresque adventure, as a combination of uncertain times at the end of the war, and traditional Soviet incompetence or disinterest, sees PL taking a distinctly non-optimal trajectory home. There are vast multi-day train rides to uncertain destinations. There are chancers of dubious morality ripping off the local peasants; there's an entire summer out in the woods where odd subcultures develope. Conditions slowly improve; eventually he gets home.

ITIAM is harder. Primarily it is intended as witness. This is awkward for me; I "know" this stuff already; I have no doubt that the Holocaust happened. Is it "useful" for me to learn the details? Perhaps. PL is of course not a typical concentration camper, since he survived, unlike the vast proportion of the others. Partly this was because he was only picked up late; partly because after a bit he got a cushy job; partly perhaps just luck. I am just a teensy tiny bit suspicious that there are things we aren't told, that might not be entirely to his credit; but only because that is almost inevitable, if you survived.

Various incidents or typical situations are told. Example: the soup for each mess was not stirred, because the soup-dispenser got the dregs which had the good bits, so no-one wanted to be first in line. Example: standing apparently pointlessly on parade. Example: awaiting the coming of less terrible weather as winter became spring. So the story is told not day-by-day but as a series of typical things; wiki provides a chapter list. But this does make you half forget that the terrible things continue. The end, The Story of Ten Days, is diary-like and I think works better for it.

The writing style is not brilliant; wiki goes for "calm sobriety" and continues He ascribed the clarity of his language to the habits acquired during his training as a chemist: "My model was that of the weekly reports, a normal practice in factories: they must be concise, precise and written in a language accessible to all levels of the firm's hierarchy" which is all very well but again, not sparkling prose.