The Drowned and the Saved | Primo Levi | How should we remember the Holocaust?

The Drowned and the Saved | Primo Levi | Never Again

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The Drowned and th...

	The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi Vintage, 1989 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

How should we remember the Holocaust?

Levi was an Italian Jew who survived the Holocaust despite incarceration in Auschwitz. THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED is his final book, and it is not so much about the events of the Holocaust themselves as it is about how we have come to remember and understand the Holocaust, the most horrific crime in human history, the author persuasively argues. Levi's book exposes the pitfalls of human memory, exploring the nature of history, asking how we might honestly represent to posterity crimes that are literally unspeakable. By taking a modest but crucial step back from the actual crimes, Levi holds up for his reader's examination both the need for and the limits on our already somewhat distanced historical perspective on the Holocaust. Levi was worried about the myths and metaphors that had already attached themselves to the Holocaust within his lifetime, stylized intellectual ivy already obscuring the ruined walls of recent history. THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED attempts to clear away this overgowth, to preserve the ruin as starkly, as nakedly, as might still be possible

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Never Again

The message for all of mankind out of the Holocaust visited upon European Jews, gypsies and other assorted "undesirables" has to be: Never Again. Primo Levi did an immeasurable service to western civilization in documenting so eloquently and powerfully his reflections on the greatest crime in human history. A survivor of Auschwitz by a combination of luck and skill (documented with rare clarity and mundane, brutal honesty in Survival at Auschwitz and The Reawakening) Levi returned to his native Italy and his work as a chemist - but he could never forget the horror visited upon himself and millions of others in similar situations. We are fortunate that an intelligent, humanistic mind survived long enough to give us this reminder - Never Again. Sadly, as Levi recognized, even a lesson of this magnitude cannot be wholly learned when good people are willing to stand by and let evil be done. Pol Pot's excesses in Cambodia before Levi's death, the Serbians in ! the former Yugoslovia since Levi's death, are two more examples. In my mind, Levi's body of literature is the defining memorial to the Holocaust, with a greater effect than, for example, the Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C. (which is actually not a memorial but a timed entry exhibition) or Spielberg's Schindler's List. The moral question - how could any society be responsible for such an unspeakable atrocity against God and their own humanity? - must be addressed with unflinching honesty and clarity. Levi asks that question from a rare vantage point. Sadly, all too few take the time to listen to the answer.

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the best book ever written

BE WARNED!! this book is not just the most beatiful work of art ever produced - be it literature, film, theatre, or any other genre. At the same time it is truly the most disturbing and it could easily push you into insanity. Reading it gives you a better insight into human nature than a billion psychologists and psychiatrists etc. ever could. don't try and con yourself that you are civilised. this is what we are all capable of

A Wonderful Book

This is the most thought-provoking and informative book I've ever read about life in the Death Camps. Levi's honesty and compassion are on every page. I recommend it highly.

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the most important Holocaust writer

Fans of Elie Wiesel will love this book even more than Night or Dawn. I don't mean any disrespect to Wiesel, but Levi is much more of a great writer and all his books are much more moving and well-written than Wiesel's. Unfortunately, Levi committed suicide soon after writing his great books, but after you read his accounts, you'll understand why. He has produced the best Holocaust narratives in existence -- you'd be naive not to read them and compare them to any others you've read.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4

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