If This Is a Man (Masterplots II: Nonfiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Primo Levi
- First Published: 1947
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- Time of Work: 1943-1945
- Setting: Auschwitz
- Principal Characters: Primo Levi, Jean, Iss Clausner, Zero Eighteen, Schepschel, Alfred L., Elias Lindzin, Henri, Steinlauf, Lorenzo
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography
- Subjects: Memory, Prisoners, World War II, Jews or Jewish life, Anti-Semitism, Nazism or Nazis, Concentration camps, Tattoos
Form and Content
Beneath the Roman pavement are Jewish as well as Christian catacombs, for Jews have lived in Italy as long as anyone else. Primo Levi’s own family came to that country in 1500 and assimilated with their non-Jewish neighbors. Even Benito Mussolini’s anti-Semitic laws of 1938 changed little for Levi. Although he was legally barred from attending college, he took his degree in chemistry in 1941. Theoretically unemployable because of his “race,” he was working as a chemist in Milan in 1943 when Mussolini’s government fell and was succeeded by a...
[The entire page is 2810 words long]
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