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The first published work by one of the central figures in twentieth century literature.While in a Russian-administered holding camp in Katowice, Poland, in 1945, Primo Levi was asked to provide a report on living conditions in Auschwitz. Published the following year, it was then forgotten, and has until now remained unknown to a wider public.

Dating from the weeks and months immediately after the war, Auschwitz Report represents a fascinating and unusual return to the very earliest phase of Holocaust testimony. It details the author's deportation to Auschwitz, selections for work and extermination, everyday life in the camp, and the organization and working of the gas chambers. It constitutes Levi's first, astonishingly lucid attempts to come to terms with the raw horror of events that would drive him to create some of the greatest works of twentieth-century literature and testimony. Auschwitz Report is a major literary and historical discovery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent reporting
As you may already know, Primo Levi on the Holocaust can be seriously depressing.
The brief Auschwitz Report is an uemotional report of some of the events and practices
Levi witnessed there.Perhaps the lack of obvious emotion brings our horror into sharp relief. ... Read more

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Judith Kelly looks at Levi's work in the context of testimonial literature and examines the linguistic expression of the author's Auschwitz experience. The moral and philosophical nature of humanity within the camp is investigated. In particular, there is a comparison between If this is Man and a co-authored medico-scientific report, and a consideration of sources and motifs which provide the cultural framework for the authors expression of his experiences. ... Read more

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A collection of work encompassing the widest range of theme and mood from the author of 'Periodic Table'. ... Read more

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This is a thorough introduction to an author who mixes devotion to art and science with the harrowing experiences of Auschwitz.Primo Levi emerged from the Holocaust as one of the most powerful voices to bear witness to the atrocities of the Nazi concentration camps. Italian by birth and Jewish by ancestry, this young chemist survived Auschwitz and later, with his sober retelling of the horrific experience, consecrated the memory of millions who perished there. In this companion to his works, Nicholas Patruno analyzes Levi's novels, short stories, and essays to reveal a writer who eloquently evoked the soul of the persecuted Jew but who never came to terms with the guilt of his own survival.Patruno contents that while Jewish themes recur throughout Levi's work, labeling him narrowly as an ethnic writer would be inaccurate. Rather, Patruno echoes Italo Calvino in defining Levi as a writer of 'encyclopedic vein' and argues that Levi's significance as artist and communicator lies in the fusion of his scientific sensibilities and literary creativity. Patruno examines the synthesis of science and art in "The Periodic Table", considered by many to be Levi's greatest work.He also critiques "The Monkey's Wrench", Levi's short fiction and essays, the four books created directly from his Holocaust experience, and "If Not Now, When?", perhaps Levi's only truly conventional novel. Patruno shows that although Levi wrote absorbingly about a variety of topics, his work was always informed by his Holocaust experiences. ... Read more

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As one of the best-known survivors of the concentration camps, Primo Levi's testimony to his experiences in Auschwitz is internationally recognised as one of the most significant works of the last century. This volume examines each of Levi's works in detail, assessing and analysing the influence of Levi's time in Auschwitz on his writing. It identifies a variety of thematic, temporal, stylistic and linguistic echoes of Levi's concentration camp testimony, and traces these echoes throughout his subsequent, apparently unrelated, work. The book provides original and fascinating insights into the works of this remarkable writer, giving readers a new understanding and perspective on the immense significance and the pervasive influence of the holocaust on Levi's creative output. ... Read more