|
|
Article: Primo Levi, Witness.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Primo Levi's If This is a Man and Responses to the Lager in Italy 1945-47
AFTER ELEVEN MONTHS IN AUSCHWITZ-MONOWITZ AND TEN months wandering through war-torn central Europe, Prima Levi returned to Turin in October 1945. On his journey home and in Turin, he took to telling what had happened to friends, family, and strangers, and very soon--by December 1945 at the latest--he had begun writing these stories down, at work or on commuter trains. Over 1946 the stories grew into a book, which he sent to three publishers, including liberal-leftwing Einaudi in Turin. They all turned him down. In early 1947, several chapters were published in a local Communist Party ...