Survival in Auschwitz: Chapter 1. The Journey Summary & Analysis

Primo Levi, a 24-year-old Italian Jew, is captured by the Fascist Militia on behalf of the “new-born Fascist Republic,” which he has been working against as a resistance organizer. Believing (mistakenly) that his political crimes will earn him a death sentence if discovered, Levi instead declares his status as an “Italian citizen of Jewish Race.” On this admission, he is sent to a detention camp in Modena, Italy, where he waits for several weeks with other individuals arrested by the Fascists, hundreds of whom are Jewish, though there are foreigners and political prisoners as well. After several weeks, a unit of German SS officers arrive, inspect the camp, and declare that every single Jew will be moved to a new location. They should be ready the next morning “for a fortnight of travel. For every person missing at the roll call, ten would be shot.”

Most everyone understands what this journey must mean, as they have met other refugees who have already fled the German expansion. Although usually, when one is condemned to die, they are given a moment of respite and offered whatever comfort suits them, the night is chaotic and fretful as people pack, prepare, pray, or celebrate one last time. When preparations have been made, a group of people light candles and lament together. Levi recalls that is possessed by an ancient grief, though new to him, “the grief without hope of exodus that is renewed every century.” The sun rises and the new day dawns, and the Jewish people await their fate in a “collective, uncontrolled panic.”

The Germans count the 650 Jewish prisoners—reporting that all the “pieces” are present—and load them onto cargo trains, packed so tightly that there is hardly room to move one’s arms. The Germans strike them at random as they climb aboard, though they feel no pain, only confusion at how someone could hurt another “without anger.” They travel that way for days, suffering from hunger and thirst and the winter’s cold as they pass through various Austrian towns. The cramped quarters make it nearly impossible to lie down. Although they are struck with despair, the physical pain and discomfort serves to distract them, and keep them from the abyss. Of the 45 people in his train car, only four will ever return home—the highest percentage of survivors of any of the train cars. Intuiting this, the Jewish people begin to say their farewells to whichever strangers are near.

The train arrives at its destination and the Jewish prisoners spill out into the cold night. German officers are waiting for them, speaking in poor Italian, and sort the healthy men out from the rest, offering thin assurances that people will be reunited with their families eventually. Those considered unfit to labor for the Reich are sent away and never seen again. “Thus, in an instant, our women, our parents, our children disappeared.” Two groups of bedraggled, filthy individuals arrive, walking in columns with their heads down, and begin unloading luggage—the new arrivals immediately understand that this is “the metamorphosis that awaited us.” The healthy Jewish men are loaded onto trucks and driven elsewhere. The officer standing guard in Levi’s truck kindly asks each man if he can have their money or jewelry, since they won’t be needing it any longer.