The Black Hole of Auschwitz

The Black Hole of Auschwitz

by Primo Levi and Marco Belpoliti
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 14/05/2017

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The Black Hole of Auschwitz brings together Levi’s writings on the Holocaust and his experiences of the concentration camp, as well as those on his own accidental status as a writer and his chosen profession of chemist. In this book Levi rails intelligently and eloquently against what he saw as the ebb of compassion and interest in the Holocaust, and the yearly assault on the veracity and moral weight of the testimonies of its survivors. For Levi, to keep writing and, through writing, to understand why the Holocaust could happen, was nothing less than a safeguard against the loss of a collective memory of the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish people.


This moving book not only reveals the care and conviction with which he wrote about the Holocaust, but also shows the range of Levi’s interests and the skill, thoughtfulness and sensitivity he brought to all his subjects. The consistency and moral force of Levi’s reflections and the clarity and intimacy of his style will make this book appeal to a wide readership, including those who have read and been moved by his masterpiece If This is a Man.

ISBN:
9781509526239
9781509526239
Category:
Literature: history & criticism
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
14-05-2017
Language:
English
Publisher:
Polity Press
Primo Levi

In 1919, Primo Levi was born into a Jewish family in Turin, Italy, in 1919. Despite the anti-Semitic laws introduced to Italy by Mussolini's government, he was able to complete his degree in Chemistry at Turin University in 1941.

When the Germans invaded northern Italy in 1943, Levi escaped to the mountains to join a group of anti-fascist partisans but was soon captured and eventually deported to Auschwitz.

He was liberated in January 1945. After the war he resumed his career as a chemist, retiring only in 1975. His graphic account of his time in Auschwitz, If This is a Man, was published in 1947.

Levi went on to write many other books, including The Wrench, If Not Now, When? and The Periodic Table, emerging not only as one of the most profound and haunting commentators on the Holocaust, but as a great writer on many twentieth-century themes, especially science. Primo Levi committed suicide on 11 April 1987.

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