The Story of Ten Days
"For the first time since the day of my arrest I found myself free, without armed guards, without wire fences between myself and home."
khb
Monday, March 12, 2007
16
The Last One
"To destroy a man is difficult,almost as difficult as to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded. Here we are, docile under you gaze; from our side you have nothing more to fear; no acts of violence, no words of defiance, not even a look of judgement."
15
Die drei Leute com Labor
Primo was assigned as one of the three chemists to work in the laboratory. His life in the concentration camp was easier as being a specialist in the certain area. He got better treated with shelter, food, and new clothes. He didn’t work all day long under the sun but now, he just worked with chemical things, the labor that he usually did for his living before he arrived in Auschwitz.
This privileged conditions that Primo had over the ordinary prisoners were made because of his specialist. Before I started reading this book, I thought if a victim of the Holocaust survived the massacre then he must have something standing out that helped him survive. As soon as I read that Primo would be taking the chemistry exam, my light bulb had turned on. I knew he would pass the test and that would help him survive.
This reminds me of how my parents often stresses the reality of the society that we live in and how I must become a specialist in an area to make a living and to earn many things I desire to have in life.
Primo was assigned as one of the three chemists to work in the laboratory. His life in the concentration camp was easier as being a specialist in the certain area. He got better treated with shelter, food, and new clothes. He didn’t work all day long under the sun but now, he just worked with chemical things, the labor that he usually did for his living before he arrived in Auschwitz.
This privileged conditions that Primo had over the ordinary prisoners were made because of his specialist. Before I started reading this book, I thought if a victim of the Holocaust survived the massacre then he must have something standing out that helped him survive. As soon as I read that Primo would be taking the chemistry exam, my light bulb had turned on. I knew he would pass the test and that would help him survive.
This reminds me of how my parents often stresses the reality of the society that we live in and how I must become a specialist in an area to make a living and to earn many things I desire to have in life.
14
Kraus
“He does not yet know that it is better to be beaten, because one does not normally die of blows, but one does of exhaustion…he seems to think that his present situation is like outside, where it is honest and logical to work, as well as being of advantage, because according to what everyone says, the more one works the more one earns and eats."
Primo introduces a new character, Kraus. Kraus would work assiduously because he thinks one could earn more living if he worked harder. But Primo sees that idea very foolishly and ridiculously. Primo criticizes Kraus that his belief is wrong and that there can’t be any benefit from working hard in Auschwitz. Even though they worked hard, they couldn’t expect another bowl of soup but when they slack off their work, they would get beatings from the SS soldiers. There was no point of working harder than other prisoners in Auschwitz because everyone would get the same amount of soup and everyone would have to die.
13
October in 1944
Each man had two results coming out from the selection: either to die or live. They were not able to make up the decision but to just follow their fate. Most of the prisoners weren’t guilty to get killed in the gas chamber. To me, there are no reasonable claims that the Germans had the right to kill the Jews because the matter of death was in the hands of God.
God was in control of the lives of these people if they had trusted in Him. It was foolish for Primo to believe that God didn’t exist among them and that having hope and praying to God had no meaning to life in Auschwitz. I felt very sorry for Primo and the other prisoners to be in that situation where they couldn’t even be thankful for passing the selection because they would have other many chances that they could end up in the gas chambers. If a man was chosen to die, the fear and the knowing that he would have to die wouldn’t even be expressed by words.
Each man had two results coming out from the selection: either to die or live. They were not able to make up the decision but to just follow their fate. Most of the prisoners weren’t guilty to get killed in the gas chamber. To me, there are no reasonable claims that the Germans had the right to kill the Jews because the matter of death was in the hands of God.
God was in control of the lives of these people if they had trusted in Him. It was foolish for Primo to believe that God didn’t exist among them and that having hope and praying to God had no meaning to life in Auschwitz. I felt very sorry for Primo and the other prisoners to be in that situation where they couldn’t even be thankful for passing the selection because they would have other many chances that they could end up in the gas chambers. If a man was chosen to die, the fear and the knowing that he would have to die wouldn’t even be expressed by words.
12
The Events of the Summer
“I believe that it was due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence, by this natural and plain manner of being good, that there still existed a just world outside our own, something that someone sill pure and whole, not corrupt, not savage, extraneous to hatred and terror; something difficult to define, a remote possibility of good, but for which it was worth surviving.”
Lorenzo was a kind of person that helped Primo survive the horrible things that happened inside the concentration camp after all. Lorenzo was the only hope of staying ‘pure and whole’ because he himself stayed to live with moral standards. He had lived a different life than other prisoners because he didn’t always follow the crowd. He would be the type of person that would stand up for what he believe in and for what is right to him. Lorenzo had showed Primo that there is still kindness and good existing in the camp and also in the outside world.
“I believe that it was due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence, by this natural and plain manner of being good, that there still existed a just world outside our own, something that someone sill pure and whole, not corrupt, not savage, extraneous to hatred and terror; something difficult to define, a remote possibility of good, but for which it was worth surviving.”
Lorenzo was a kind of person that helped Primo survive the horrible things that happened inside the concentration camp after all. Lorenzo was the only hope of staying ‘pure and whole’ because he himself stayed to live with moral standards. He had lived a different life than other prisoners because he didn’t always follow the crowd. He would be the type of person that would stand up for what he believe in and for what is right to him. Lorenzo had showed Primo that there is still kindness and good existing in the camp and also in the outside world.
11
The Canto of Ulysses
As I was reading this chapter, I was confused about what point Primo tried to make. I think this chapter doesn’t have any significant parts to the plot but it shows another character of Primo. Primo tries to teach Italian to a French inmate, by translating The Canto of Ulysses from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
I remember reading Divine Comedy and how it was quite confusing. It is an epic poem of Italian literature. The studies of the great literature work helped me to understand why Primo would be translating it. While Primo was making the effort to translate the poem, he noticed the beauty of Italian and his own country.
The pride of being an Italian shows a good character of Primo. He finds a little bit of hope when he realized his identity as an Italian. He was also able to see the small thing as beauty of owns mother language in a situation where no one could ever feel proud or hopeful. I was able to see his optimism made him a different prisoner than other prisoners that surrounded him.
As I was reading this chapter, I was confused about what point Primo tried to make. I think this chapter doesn’t have any significant parts to the plot but it shows another character of Primo. Primo tries to teach Italian to a French inmate, by translating The Canto of Ulysses from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
I remember reading Divine Comedy and how it was quite confusing. It is an epic poem of Italian literature. The studies of the great literature work helped me to understand why Primo would be translating it. While Primo was making the effort to translate the poem, he noticed the beauty of Italian and his own country.
The pride of being an Italian shows a good character of Primo. He finds a little bit of hope when he realized his identity as an Italian. He was also able to see the small thing as beauty of owns mother language in a situation where no one could ever feel proud or hopeful. I was able to see his optimism made him a different prisoner than other prisoners that surrounded him.
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