Primo Levi
Primo Levi, (b. July 31, 1919, Turin, Italy—d. April 11,
1987, Turin), Italian-Jewish writer and chemist, noted for
his restrained and moving autobiographical account of and
reflections on survival in the Nazi concentration camps.
Levi was brought up in the
small Jewish community in Turin, studied at the University
of Turin, and graduated summa cum laude in chemistry in
1941. Two years later he joined friends in northern Italy in
an attempt to connect with a resistance movement, but he was
captured and sent to Auschwitz. While there, Levi worked as
a slave labourer for an I.G. Farbenindustrie
synthetic-rubber factory. Upon the liberation of Auschwitz
by the Soviets in 1945, Levi returned to Turin, where in
1961 he became the general manager of a factory producing
paints, enamels, and synthetic resins; the association was
to last some 30 years.
Levi’s first book, Se
questo è un uomo (1947; If This Is a Man, or Survival in
Auschwitz), demonstrated extraordinary qualities of humanity
and detachment in its analysis of the atrocities he had
witnessed. His later autobiographical works, La tregua
(1963; The Truce, or The Reawakening) and I sommersi e i
salvati (1986; The Drowned and the Saved), are further
reflections on his wartime experiences. Il sistema periodico
(1975; The Periodic Table) is a collection of 21
meditations, each named for a chemical element, on the
analogies between the physical, chemical, and moral spheres;
of all of Levi’s works, it is probably his greatest critical
and popular success. He also wrote poetry, novels, and short
stories. His death was apparently a suicide.
