of Henri, it is a reality that the drive to survive encompasses different elements of being in the narrative.  Levi understands this condition of what it means to be human as one survival takes on different forms and part of the experience of understanding the Holocaust is to try to do so without stifling any of these expressions with judgments:

...survival without renunciation of any part of one’s own moral world—apart from powerful and direct interventions by fortune—was conceded only to very few superior individuals, the stuff of martyrs and saints.

The element of attachment is something that defines so many in the Holocaust experience that Levi wishes to display this in its totality without judgment or curtailing perception.  In this, Levi is able to show what humans are capable of doing in the name of survival.

Lorenzo embodies the idea that there can be transcendence in a world of contingency.  Lorenzo has not lost his humanity, even though the world of Auschwitz has taken it from so many.  His kindness and sense of compassion to Levi shows that one can be human in an inhuman world.  It is not easy.  It is a path "filled with thorns" as Swami Vivekananda would say.  Yet, Lorenzo is the force of benevolence in a world that lacks grace.  His befriending of Levi, as well as his helping him survive, and assisting him physically and emotionally are elements in which demonstrate how one can retain their sense of humanity and care for others.  Levi's inclusion of Lorenzo's narrative is one in which individuals are able to assess that in Auschwitz, survival is not the only driving force behind being.  The transcendence that Lorenzo demonstrates is one that is galvanizing in terms of its effect on the reader.  It is one that shows how individuals can transcend the condition in which they are immersed.  While there is much in Auschwitz that reminds us of how survival drives all, Lorenzo's narrative is one that does affirm that the Holocaust did not kill all transcendence, helping to reaffirm that righteousness and justice did and can prevail over the forces of malevolence.

Survival is approached in different ways in Levi's work.  Its fundamental challenge is appropriated through different paths in the form of different characters.  In these different approaches, the challenge to survive is evident in that survival in the camps is not presented as a monolithic reality.  The challenge to survive lies in the fact that there are no direct answers, nothing is concrete. There are no simple answers, only different paths that confuse and confound.  In this, the challenge to survive is evident.  

Consider the approach of Steinlauf, who argues to Levi that survival is necessary as a matter of record.  If one is convinced that the camps represent the greatest horror that an individual can perpetrate upon another, then survival must be fought for at all costs in order to tell the narrative so that it does not get repeated.  In this instance, survival is linked the the greater cause of humanity.  Lorenzo demonstrates the challenge of survival in a social context through his benevolence to Levi.  In this example, survival is seen in the eyes of solidarity with another.  It is not merely an individual act, but rather one of social commitment.  Another example of the challenge to survive is found in individuals such as Alfred L., who severs the bonds between he and all other human beings, or Slovak, who has to survive through betraying others at all costs.  In these instances, the challenge to survive is met through different approaches.  Neither is praised or denigrated by Levi, himself, who would rather take the role of silence in letting the narrative of the Holocaust speak for itself in which the challenge to survive is the only chord that resonates.