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Essay / Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi - 544
In Primo Levi's Survival In Auschwitz, an autobiographical account of the author's Holocaust experience, the concept of home takes on various forms and meanings. Levi writes about his experience as an Italian Jew during the Holocaust. We learn of his journey to Auschwitz, his captivity and his ultimate return home. This article explores the idea of house throughout the work. As a concept, it symbolizes Levi's past, future, and part of his identity. I also respond to the concept of home in Survival In Auschwitz by comparing it to my own idea and what home means to me – a place of stability and reflection that remains a constant in my changing life. In Lévis's description of his trip to Auschwitz, the house gradually becomes a symbol of the past. As a young Jewish chemist participating in the anti-fascist movement, Levi was arrested in Italy and eventually taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. As he prepares to board the train for the camp, Lévi says that "the happy memories of our homes, still so close in time and space, [were] as painful as the blows of the sword” (Levi 10). At this stage of L...