...The Gray Zone by Primo Levi – Summary In the chapter, the gray zone, the author Primo Levi describes the human relationships inside the Lager. In describing the gray zone, Levi discusses the different roles of prisoners assigned by the Nazi. The prisoners that did the work were seen as being more privileged which at the end of the day helped them get more food and live better. Therefore, the concept of the gray zone is analyzing the difference between the privileged and the non-privileged in the Lager. The difference can be seen by the tasks that the prisoners carried out, for example, one of the groups were seen as, “Low ranking functionaries... sweepers, kettle washers, night watchmen, bed smoothers... checkers of lice and scabies, messengers, interpreters, assistants’ assistants. In general, these people poor devils like ourselves, who worked full time like everyone else but who for an extra half liter of soup were willing to carry out these and other ‘tertiary’ functions.” This group was seen as harmless and not much different than the underprivileged. The other group of prisoners in the Lager was seen as the enemies to their own people. They were referred to as the Kapos who were “free to commit the worst atrocities on their subject as punishment for any transgressions, or even without any motive whatsoever: until the end of 1943 it was not unusual for a prisoner to be beaten to death by a Kapo without the latter having to fear any sanctions.” The prisoners that became...
Words: 734 - Pages: 3
...The novel, Survival in Auschwitz, explains Primo Levi's experiences and thoughts during his time in the concentration camp. Levi expresses his sufferings to explain how the prisoners were not treated like people by the Germans. They were de-humanized by stamping each individual with numbers, had harsh living conditions and forcing them away from their families. The actions taken place on each individual were not how people should be treated. The German's goal was to deprive any positive human qualities that the Jews consisted. The easiest way to do so, was to strip them away from their family. "In an instant, our [their] women, parents, and children disappeared. We [They] saw them for a short while as an obscure mass at the other end of...
Words: 451 - Pages: 2
...different accounts of the same event: the Holocaust. There are very basic and obvious differences between Alicia Jurman and Primo Levi, which are shown in the table below. Although these differences seem minor, they had a major affect on the differences between the events Alicia and Primo faced. Age Gender Country of Origin Concentration Camp v. Hiding Alicia Jurman 9 yrs - 15 yrs Female Poland Hiding Primo Levi 24 yrs Male Italy Concentration Camp - Auschwitz Alicia was only nine years old when Poland was invaded by the Germans. Alicia’s young age during the Holocaust earned her the right to be called a “child hero”. It is possible that her young age added to her determination. She knew she was in constant danger, but it did not seem that she had a full understanding of just how serious that danger was. Primo was also very young, and even described how his young age contributed to his naivety: “I was twenty-four, with little wisdom, no experience and a decided tendency….. to live in an unrealistic world of my own…..I cultivated a moderate and abstract sense of rebellion”. Although Primo discussed his immaturity, it still seemed that he had a better understanding of the gravity of the situation. The gender differences also played a role in the different experiences. As a female, Alicia was more able to go into hiding. Even if Primo had escaped, it was too risky for men to hide. Most men, especially young men of Primo’s age, were either in the army or...
Words: 2389 - Pages: 10
...Ratios | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Zip AG | Schnell AG | SparPetrol AG | Gross Profit Margins | 0.349794 | 0.350051 | 0.320015 | 0.270005 | 28% | 26% | 30% | Return on Sales | 0.080247 | 0.125257 | 0.099293 | 0.043671 | 8% | 10% | 6% | Return on Invested Capital | 0.090304 | 0.121166 | 0.047651 | 0.034259 | 12.50% | 14% | 11% | Return on Assets | 0.176951 | 0.239783 | 0.164511 | 0.058024 | 9% | 12% | 10% | Return on Equity | 0.259654 | 0.359941 | 0.450042 | 0.175583 | 23% | 19% | 22% | We can draw a few conclusions from the different ratios calculated below 1. GROSS PROFIT MARGINS – Have gradually gone down for Primo Berzine over the years from 2006 to 2009. When compared to the competitors the margins are slightly worse than the industry. 2. RETURN ON SALES – Values have gone down for the company over the years, and compared to the industry also, the company seems to be not doing well. 3. RETURN ON INVESTED CAPITAL - Values have gone down for the company over the years, and compared to the industry also, the company seems to be providing poor returns on invested capital(both equity and debt) as compared to the industry. 4. RETURN ON ASSETS – Ratio improved a bit, but slid down in the year 2009. When compared to the industry, this ratio is again directs us towards a very pessimistic conclusion about the prospects of the company. 5. RETURN ON EQUITY – When seen over the years, the company has done well in improving its ratio but the 2009 values...
Words: 265 - Pages: 2
...length, double-spaced, with standard 1” margins, and good use of the text/s or film/s discussed, indicate and identify quotations in the accepted academic way (which I or the Writing Lab will be glad to make clear if necessary) without resort to unnecessary foot- or endnotes. Note that you also have the option of writing on an idea of your own as long as you deal with a work on the syllabus and run it by me first, and that you may expand your presentation, if you have given one. 1. “Primo Levi entitles his first book If This Is a Man (Si questo e un uomo), but it became well known and read widely in translation from the Italian as Survival in Auschwitz aspects of the book.” Discuss. 2. Discuss the possible significance in the narrative as a whole of the episode in Elie Wiesel’s Night (pp. 58-9 in the Hill and Wang edition) where Elie finds his Kapo Idek having sex with a young woman in the empty warehouse. 3. In the last three paragraphs of Chapter 13 of Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi describes a man called Kuhn praying aloud, “thanking God that he has not been chosen” in “the great selection of October 1944.” In the title story of This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadek writes of “naked, sweat drenched men” crowding the barrack aisles, and “directly beneath me [. . .] a rabbi” reading from a Hebrew prayer book and “wailing loudly, monotonously” (Penguin, p. 31). Compare the perspectives in these two scenes and the tone and attitudes of each narrator...
Words: 537 - Pages: 3
...Alexia Gonzalez Political Science 4823: The Holocaust/ the Shoah Final Paper December 12, 2013 The Comparative Analysis of the Holocaust Ethnic cleansing and genocide are considered to coexist in a spectrum of assaults on nations or religio-ethnic groups. These threats were more prominent during the 20th century which caused massive violations of human rights and jeopardized the overall security of humans. Determinants of ethnic cleansing and genocide root from socio-political factors influenced by deeply embedded ideologies which are manifested by political leaders of specific regime types. During World War II, German authorities targeted Jews and other minority groups like the gypsies and Pols due to their perceived racial inferiority. The German ideology in attempt to eradicate these auxiliary groups led to the conflict known as the Shoah. The Shoah is the biblical word meaning destruction and it is the standard Hebrew term for the murder of European Jewry. The Shoah was the systematic, bureaucratic and state sponsored persecution of six million Jews. Comparable to other ethnic based genocides, Germans believed they were racially superior and that Jews were inferior; and deemed a threat to the “German racial community” resulting in their mass murder. Various interpretations of the Shoah has given rise to similar attitudes and opinions regarding its historical events. The Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database, is one of the largest resources of its kind which includes...
Words: 3519 - Pages: 15
...Survival in Auschwitz In the book Survival in Auschwitz, the author Primo Levi illustrates the hardships himself and others endured during the capture of Jews in 1943. Originally titled If This Is a Man, Levi expresses captivating images and vivid emotions of his experience of inhumane treatment. The memories indicate the intense and extreme situations all Jews suffered in the totalitarian state of Nazi control. Levi learns an immense amount of survival tactics in order to breathe every waking day of his new life. The weak were tested physically and emotionally as the path of death was effortless, while the road to survival seemed impossible and unachievable. Throughout the narrative, Primo transforms from an apathetic victim to a progressive survivor in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz. The concept of black marketing, knowledge in chemistry and his spirituality all contributed toward the survival of Primo Levi and others in Auschwitz. According to Primo Levi, illegality, deceit, infidelity and sin were all relevant in the concentration camp. These characteristics made up Auschwitz and were used as necessities in order to survive such horrid conditions. Those who were captured and sent to German camps quickly noticed that this was a place where happiness was extinct. Little pieces of bread, shoes or soup bowls were perceived as rather large when consumed and used by other prisoners. The smallest amount of food attracted any inmates, creating trust issues...
Words: 989 - Pages: 4
...1. How does their story of survival compare to that of Primo Levi? 2. Why do you think Art Spiegelman draws the characters of his book as mice, cats, pig etc.? 3. Maus 4. What was Vladek like? 5. Vladek is an older person with a very précised in what he want and he son see this as being annoying. He feels you need to be aware of everything. He does not trust people specially his second wife Mala. He has hearth problems and he is diabetic. Sometime he used his sickness to his advantage. 6. During the Holocaust, he exhibited a spectacular resourcefulness, work ethic, and presence of mind that often enabled him to secure food, shelter, and safety for himself and his family. He was a shrewd businessman, and in the most troubling times he saved everything of use. In 1978, he still saves everything and tries to exchange those things that he no longer needs. Once so resourceful and competent, he is still constantly working on small projects, some of which he is incapable of completing. Vladek's personality is largely dominated by his Holocaust experiences. 7. What do we know of his life before the holocaust? 8. He was a happy bachelor living his life in the small city of Czestochowa. He used to sell textiles. Vladek was organized person his apartment was small but organized. He met Anja and soon he felt in love with her. When Anja take him to her house to meet her parent, he checks her clothes to see what kind of wife she will be. To his surprise she...
Words: 1211 - Pages: 5
...PART I Night In 1941 Ellie lived in Transylvanian, there he studied Talmud and other Jewish studies, such as Kabbalah. After learning with Moshe the Beadle, the Hungarians evacuated all foreign Jews as-well with Moshe. Moshe was able to escape and returned several months later, and explained the brutal treatment that they encountered, but most people did not believe him. 1944 the Nazis gained power in Hungry, and all Jews were crowded into a small ghetto. After a while the Nazis started to deport all the Jews in the ghetto to Auschwitz. On the train the Jews were packed in, with almost no air to breathe, everyone was thirsty and hungry. After some days of traveling the Jews arrived in Czech, and a German officer takes over the train. The officer warned everyone that to give of their valuables or get shot. The train doors were then nailed to prevent people from escaping. Madame Schächter, was the first person to go crazy on the train, she starts to yell about a fire, which is not there. After some time a few boys beat her to silent as her son watches in fear, but the next night she started to yell once again. The Jews arrive in Auschwitz, but it was not as they have been told. They were told although it is a labor camp; the families will be kept as one. As the train traveled through the barb wire they see chimneys of smoke, and there is terrible smell, which they later find out that it is human flesh. The camp that they arrived in is the processing camp for Auschwitz. At Birkenau...
Words: 2319 - Pages: 10
...philosopher Socrates lived and breathed for justice. He ironically died for unjust reasons of course but he still lived for what was right. Two thousand four hundred years after his death however, the Nazis managed to destroy the very essence of justice, and life, for millions of their victims. In Auschwitz, as with all concentration camps, justice was non-existent. There are very important things missing from Auschwitz that Socrates would have considered essential for justice to exist. Let us start by confirming above all things that the main point of punishment is a consequence of wrong doing: the degree of punishment agreeing with the degree of crime (hopefully but not always the case). That is the basic idea of justice in my mind. For Primo Levi and twelve million others of the Nazi’s victims in the concentration camps, this was most certainly not the case. Yes the Nazi’s did have political and criminal prisoners that somewhat earned their spot there but the large majority of the prisoners never did anything wrong whatsoever. This is the first and most clear way in which justice was destroyed. Their crime was existing, whether they Jewish, gypsy, handicap, or what have you. On top of that, the crimes against humanity that the Nazis committed were so horrible, so grotesque and unspeakable, that the only deserving victims of such treatment were the ones responsible for it. Socrates stated "Happiness surely does not consist in being delivered from evils, but in never having them...
Words: 869 - Pages: 4
...Primo Benzina AG was a retail chain of petrol stations offering petrol, snacks, restaurant meals, and high-quality service in central Europe. In 2006, the company began operations with two outlets in Stuttgart, Germany, and another two outlets in Basel, Switzerland. The company grew rapidly from four outlets and sales of 2.4 million euros in 2006 to 24 outlets and sales of 38.1 million euros in 2009. Yet the company's rapid growth in revenues was accompanied by declining profitability and a substantial increase in receivables, inventories, and capital investments in new retail outlets. The resulting cash outflows were financed by short-term loans from Dresdner Bank and by slowing payments to trade creditors. Dresdner Bank reluctantly increased the maximum amount available to the company under its term loan to 12 million euros from 10 million euros. In early 2010, Otto Schroder, Chief Executive Officer, and Annegret Heuermann, the company's Chief Financial Officer, completed a review of the company's financial situation. The company's executives were unsure whether the new credit limit would permit the company to implement its growth strategy, since the company now had a limited amount of cash available to finance additional outlays for working capital and capital expenditures. The teaching objectives are to: (1) assess the company's business strategy and its implications for future financial performance; (2) develop cash flow statements and evaluate the impact of operating, investment...
Words: 447 - Pages: 2
...Why Choose to Go On Living? Even in the most terrible conditions imaginable, suffering is not meaningless, and one can choose to endure circumstance through discovering purpose. The idea that anyone could have survived the brutal conditions endured within the concentration camps during the holocaust is somewhat inconceivable, and yet, we have first-hand accounts from survivors of what took place within these prisons. Throughout the writings and memoirs of these individuals we discover the nuances and underpinnings of what camp life was like. In the book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Psychologist Victor Frankl describes his experiences in the Nazi death camps and implies that his wife symbolizes love and purpose. This essay will give four instances from the book that will explain the ways in which the author shows his wife as a symbol for love and purpose, and in the process citing the book, as well as academic sources. The first instance in which his wife symbolizes love in the novel is shown by Frankl’s revelation of the true meaning of love. As noted by Wünschmann, “Concentration camp incarceration was equivalent to 'social death'; the prisoners were physically isolated from society and, if released, carried a lasting stigma.” (578). Frankl experienced this as he writes about his day-to-day life being a prisoner in concentration camps. He writes about the thoughts of his wife which in turn brought up strong feelings of love and helped him to push through the day. Frankl notes...
Words: 1168 - Pages: 5
... The conditions that Levi faced at Auschwitz and how he handles shows the struggle of the basic survival instinct. The entrance sign that was at Auschwitz had the phrase on it “Arbeit Macht Frei” which roughly translates to “work will set you free.” This phrase has been seen in almost every documentary about Auschwitz. It was to inspire hope in the arriving prisoners, but it was nothing more than a lie to keep them motivated to work. Near the end of Levis days at Auschwitz, he and the remaining prisoners are left to fend for themselves as the Soviets approach. It was the winter season and with conditions rapidly deteriorating at the camp, many began to die from illness. When scene, however, easily depicts the main theme of survival from Levis perspective. While walking, he finds “an old Hungarian” that had died while trying to dig for potatoes located under the ice. (Levi 168) This clearly is a defined symbol for the reality of these concentration camps. It’s all about survival. The man, filled with hunger, fights in the bitter cold for food in the hopes of survival, but it’s in this choice that he freezes to death. What is left is a haunting image of survival at its core. Textbook accounts rarely dive into these haunting images, but rather stick with numbers and general conditions of all the prisoners. Levi gives us a personal, real, firsthand account of the truth. From his perspective, we uncover the truth as it unfolds with Levi. We see him through his experiences at the camp...
Words: 1204 - Pages: 5
...Primo Levi and his group were captured and taken in 1943 in Italy during World War II by the Nazis for participating in a resistance group called “Justice and Liberty”. They were sent to Auschwitz Buna, a factory that created synthetic rubber and latex. After eleven astonishing months surviving as a laborer and a chemist inside Auschwitz, Primo Levi and the whole camp was saved by the Russian Army. Once Levi entered the camp his personal background and physical capabilities influenced the nature of his life in Auschwitz, as it did too for many other prisoners. Before World War II began Levi had just gotten a degree in chemistry in the University of Turin. In Auschwitz the Nazis opened a chemistry unit and with his professional background as chemist, Levi was sent to work there. This meant superior living conditions thereby increasing his chances of survival especially during the harsh winter. It is clear from Levis account that a prisoner’s physical condition, mental capacities and skill set were determining factors in...
Words: 1094 - Pages: 5
...Technological, Environmental and Legal”. This is a marketing analysis in Macro-Economic where you analyze external factors that can affect your company or your business. Why do we need PESTEL? We need to know PESTEL because we will be able to determine the different factors that can affect the performance and activities of the company or business in a long-term basis. After analyzing PESTEL, we will be able to understand the relationship of external and internal factors that will help the company strategize and plan for their future activities. The company I chose to analyze is Café Primo International Corporation. It is corporation that is fully owned by Filipinos based here in the Philippines. The corporation is engaged in the production, marketing, and distribution of its own brand, Café Primo Coffees. They are registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission last 2012. Café Primo International Corporation is a member of Teodoro Group of Companies committed to establish for a prime and highest objective in developing integrated, world-class products and services which enhances quality and healthy, yet affordable products intended to augment the able physical and mental condition of their people, and thus, help them attain the comfort of living a healthy and livelier lifestyle. This corporation is located in New Manila, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. That is why it should comply with the laws, rules and regulations of the Philippines. These factors can apply...
Words: 3377 - Pages: 14
