If This is a Man

“It was the very discomfort, the blows, the cold, the thirst that kept us aloft in the void of bottomless despair, both during the journey and after. It was not the will to live, nor a conscious resignation; for few are the men capable of such resolution, and we were but a common sample of humanity.”

Although Levi is not yet at Auschwitz and in the Lager, he is already experiencing the way that discomfort can be a bulwark against total collapse. While in the Lager, Levi will bite his lip to provide an additional, comparatively minor discomfort that helps to prevent him from physical collapse. Here, the deep discomforts of the transport train protect against emotional collapse.

“During the halts, no one tried anymore to communicate with the outside world: we felt ourselves by now on ‘the other side.’”

Levi’s fellow passengers on the transport train, after frantically trying to communicate with anyone outside the train who might listen as they are taken to Auschwitz, stop; there is no one to hear them. The fear of not being heard by the outside world is later articulated in the shared nightmare of familial disinterest upon returning home when stories are shared. This is also the beginning of their understanding of the world of the concentration camp, the Lager, as a world on the “other side” of the “outside” world, with its own unique rules and experiences that will require contextual morality.

“They behaved with the calm assurance of people doing their normal duty of every day.”

Levi describes the SS who begin the selection process after the passengers get off at the loading dock. The “climax” of the trip is not reflected in the manner of the SS, who seem detached and indifferent, as if they were simple police officers.