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.

Robert Gordon has been writing about Memphis music and history for thirty years and is the author of It Came from Memphis, Can't Be Satisfied, The King on the Road, The Elvis Treasures, and Respect Yourself.

He won a Grammy in 2011 for his liner notes to the Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky. His film work includes producing and directing the documentary Respect Yourself- The Stax Records Story for PBS 's Great Performances, and he was also co-writer and co-director of the critically acclaimed Best of Enemies. Gordon lives in Memphis.