The Drowned and the Saved

Last updated
The Drowned and The Saved
Drowned and saved.jpg
First edition
Author Primo Levi
Original titleI sommersi e i salvati
Translator Raymond Rosenthal
LanguageItalian
Publisher Einaudi (Italian)
Summit Books (English)
Publication date
1986
Publication placeItaly
Published in English
1988
Media typePrint (Hardcover) and (Paperback)
Pages170
ISBN 0-349-10047-0
OCLC 59150087

The Drowned and the Saved (Italian : I sommersi e i salvati) is a book of essays by Italian-Jewish author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi on life and death in the Nazi extermination camps, drawing on his personal experience as a survivor of Auschwitz (Monowitz). The author's last work, written in 1986, a year before his death, The Drowned and the Saved is an attempt at an analytical approach, in contrast to his earlier books If This Is a Man (1947) and The Truce (1963), which are autobiographical.

Contents

Contents

Preface [1]
  1. The Memory of the Offense [1]
  2. The Gray Zone [1]
  3. Shame [1]
  4. Communicating [1]
  5. Useless Violence [1]
  6. The Intellectual in Auschwitz [1]
  7. Stereotypes [1]
  8. Letters from Germans [1]
Conclusion [1]

Miscellaneous

The title of one essay (The Grey Zone) was used as title for the film The Grey Zone (2001), which is based on a book by Miklós Nyiszli.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primo Levi</span> Italian Jewish partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer (1919–1987)

Primo Michele Levi was a Jewish-Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works include If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and The Periodic Table (1975), a collection of mostly autobiographical short stories each named after a chemical element as it played a role in each story, which the Royal Institution named the best science book ever written.

<i>Sonderkommando</i> Work units of Nazi death camp prisoners

Sonderkommandos were work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during the Holocaust. The death-camp Sonderkommandos, who were always inmates, were unrelated to the SS-Sonderkommandos, which were ad hoc units formed from members of various SS offices between 1938 and 1945.

This is a selected bibliography and other resources for The Holocaust, including prominent primary sources, historical studies, notable survivor accounts and autobiographies, as well as other documentation and further hypotheses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Delbo</span> French writer (1913–1985)

Charlotte Delbo was a French writer chiefly known for her haunting memoirs of her time as a prisoner in Auschwitz, where she was sent for her activities as a member of the French Resistance.

The Holocaust has been a prominent subject of art and literature throughout the second half of the twentieth century. There is a wide range of ways–including dance, film, literature, music, and television–in which the Holocaust has been represented in the arts and popular culture.

<i>The Grey Zone</i> 2001 film directed by Tim Blake Nelson

The Grey Zone is a 2001 American historical drama film written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, and Daniel Benzali. It is based on the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli.

<i>If Not Now, When?</i> (novel) 1982 novel by Primo Levi

If Not Now, When? is a novel by the Italian author Primo Levi, first published in 1982 under the title Se non ora, quando?

<i>If This Is a Man</i> Memoir by Primo Levi

If This Is a Man is a memoir by Jewish Italian writer Primo Levi, first published in 1947. It describes his arrest as a member of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War, and his incarceration in the Auschwitz concentration camp (Monowitz) from February 1944 until the camp was liberated on 27 January 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monowitz concentration camp</span> One of the three main camps in the Auschwitz concentration camp system

Monowitz was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (Arbeitslager) run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of its existence, Monowitz was a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp; from November 1943 it and other Nazi subcamps in the area were jointly known as "Auschwitz III-subcamps". In November 1944 the Germans renamed it Monowitz concentration camp, after the village of Monowice where it was built, in the annexed portion of Poland. SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Heinrich Schwarz was commandant from November 1943 to January 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muselmann</span> Term used among Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps during World War II

Muselmann was a term used amongst prisoners of German Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust of World War II to refer to those suffering from a combination of starvation and exhaustion, as well as those who were resigned to their impending death. The Muselmann prisoners exhibited severe emaciation and physical weakness, an apathetic listlessness regarding their own fate, and unresponsiveness to their surroundings owing to their barbaric treatment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mala Zimetbaum</span> Belgian Jewish Resistance member (1918–1944)

Malka Zimetbaum, also known as "Mala" Zimetbaum or "Mala the Belgian", was a Belgian woman of Polish Jewish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She is also remembered for her lifesaving acts in favor of other prisoners during her captivity at Auschwitz and for the resistance she displayed at her execution following her being recaptured, when she tried committing suicide before the guards were able to execute her, then slapped the guard who tried to stop her, before eventually being killed. She was the first woman to escape from Auschwitz.

<i>The Periodic Table</i> (short story collection) Book by Primo Levi

The Periodic Table is a 1975 short story collection by Primo Levi, named after the periodic table in chemistry. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it the best science book ever.

<i>Moments of Reprieve</i>

Moments of Reprieve is a book of autobiographical character studies/vignettes by Primo Levi.

<i>The Truce</i> Autobiographical book by Primo Levi

The Truce, titled The Reawakening in the US, is a book by the Italian author Primo Levi. It is the sequel to If This Is a Man and describes the author's experiences from the liberation of Auschwitz (Monowitz), which was a concentration camp, until he reaches home in Turin, Italy, after a long journey. He describes the situation in different displaced persons camps after the Second World War.

<i>The Search for Roots</i>

The Search for Roots: A Personal Anthology is a compilation of thirty pieces of prose and poetry selected by Italian-Jewish author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi as part of an abortive project by his original Italian publisher Einaudi to identify the texts which most influenced major Italian writers.

<i>The Black Hole of Auschwitz</i>

The Black Hole of Auschwitz is a collection of essays by the Italian author Primo Levi. Originally published under the Italian title L'asimmetria e la vita it has two distinct halves. The first half, The Black Hole of Auschwitz is a collection of essays, often prefaces to other books, which make a plea against Holocaust denial. The second half, Other People's Trades, is a mixture of essays on a wide variety of subjects. All of these works were collected together in the production of the Italian anthology of Levi's works, Opere, in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yehiel De-Nur</span> Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor

Yehiel De-Nur, also known by his pen name Ka-Tsetnik 135633, born Yehiel Feiner, was a Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, whose books were inspired by his time as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Fossoli camp was a concentration camp in Italy, established during World War II and located in the village Fossoli, Carpi, Emilia-Romagna. It began as a prisoner of war camp in 1942, later being a Jewish concentration camp, then a police and transit camp, a labour collection centre for Germany and, finally, a refugee camp, before closing in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in Italy</span>

The Holocaust in Italy was the persecution, deportation, and murder of Jews between 1943 and 1945 in the Italian Social Republic, the part of the Kingdom of Italy occupied by Nazi Germany after the Italian surrender on 8 September 1943, during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piero Terracina</span>

Piero Terracina was an Italian Jewish manager, Holocaust survivor.

References