Survival in Auschwitz

Review

Review of Background Information

• Nazis- disliked Jews due to long-seeded, historical president and state of Germany post-WWII

• Anti-Semitism: false idea that Jews are a race, inferior to other races

• In America: schools were still segregated; others treated as outsiders

• Jews: not the only group targeted by the Nazis (Gypsies, homosexuals, the elderly, etc.)

• Hitler: ensured that other countries wouldn’t become involved by making bogus peace treaties

Review of Text• Oddity in the novel about the use of

language used by the Nazis:: Euphemisms– Bath Houses = Gas Chambers– Cleansing = sent through the death process– Disinfection = gassing to death– Hairdresser = head shaver– Selection = choosing whom to murder– Special action = mass murder

Chapter 7: A Good Day

• Spring = the purpose of each ‘inmate’• “I understood how men can worship the

sun.”• “The worst is over.” = ironic- WHY?• What events in life can change a person’s

mind from desiring wealth and possessions to the basic needs of love, respect, and freedom?

Chapter 7: continued

• Why does Levi’s description of Buna as gray tell us about this environment (p. 72)?

• Buna- supposed to produce synthetic rubber• Levi’s theory of happiness• Talking about food = the MOST annoying habit in

the camp (Sigi and Béla)• Multiple theories of hunger resolution (p. 75)• The only thing worse than being hungry = being

alone long enough to think about it (…as a free man)

Chapter 8: This Side of Good and Evil

• Russians coming

• Obtaining cloth

• How important is the operation of the exchange market in the Lager (p. 78)?

• Mahorca & Prize Coupons– What are they?

• Supply vs. Demand

• Profit Margin (p.81)

Chapter 8: Continued

• Ka-Be = safe haven for prisoners at times

• Smart idea- Learn how to profit from trade. (i.e.- nurses, locals, prisoners); Levi- steals graph paper.

• Levi: Poses the dilemma: “How much of our ordinary moral world could survive on this side of the barbed wire?”

Chapter 9: The Drowned and the Saved

• Is it good to retain a memory of truly horrible events?

• No human experience is without meaning.

• Lager- a gigantic biological and social experiment. How so?

• “In the face of driving necessity and physical disabilities many social habits and instincts are reduced to silence.” (What does this reference?)

Chapter 9: continued

• Saved vs. drowned (?)

• Paradox – “To he that has, will be given; from he that has not, will be taken away.”

• Musselman- worthless, backbone

• Natural Selection

• People begin to de-evolve

Chapter 9: continued

• Schepschel

• 4 yrs.

• Mediocre as a person (not tall, not short; not fat, not slim; not nice, not cruel)

• ‘snitches’ on friend to avoid a flogging

• saved

Chapter 9: continued

• Alfred L.

• Used to be an important executive at a chemical plant

• Secret resources

• Respectable appearance

• Judged others with severity

• Saved

Chapter 9: continued

• Elias

• Dwarf

• Within the camp, respected man; outside, he was not = happy within the camp

• Superstitions surround him b/c of his strength

• Saved

Chapter 9: continued• Henri

• 22 yrs. old

• Organization, pity, & theft

• Free entry into the Ka-Be

• Treats men as instruments- “serpent of Genesis”

• Does not want to see him again

• Saved