If this is a man and The truce

How could this be anything but harrowing? And yet the author has survived, kept some portion of humanity about him, the tiniest shred. Necessary. ( )

Primo Levi's, If This is a Man, is the chilling recount of a time spent as a Jewish prisoner of the Holocaust. Though each account is tragic and horrifically detailed, the novel is difficult to put down. The central theme is an exploration of human nature and how tragedy leads to "the demolition of a man." Levi's language is dense and at times difficult to understand, but the truth to his words is invaluable. ( )

If this is a man is a fascinating, yet harrowing book about life and death in Auschwitz. Writing with laser like precision, Levi lays out how it was without wallowing in emotion. Harrowing, yet very readable. The Truce describes his experience getting home from Auschwitz, much of the time spent in Russia awaiting evacuation. This book is less harrowing, but just as insightful. Many moments of amusement, some of which leaked out as stifled laughter on my train home. Levi's insightful thoughts and comments in the afterword (in which he answers many questions commonly posed to him by his readers) is well worth reading too. ( )

Award-winning novelist Aleksandar Hemon has chosen to discuss Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man, on FiveBooks (http://five-books.com) as one of the top five on his subject - Man’s Inhumanity to Man, saying that:

“… Primo Levi was an Italian Jew, arrested in 1944 after Italy capitulated and the Nazis took over. He was shipped off to Auschwitz, but he managed to survive and see the end. He bears witness to the Holocaust, but he’s a scientist, and he needs to understand the ethical system, as it were, behind those crimes. However perverted it is, he’s trying to understand how it works. .…”.

The full interview is available here: http://thebrowser.com/books/interviews/aleksandar-hemon ( )

We must never forget.

Especially now as time flows on and memory is getting thinner and thinner... we must remember.

I am not religious and i think that every kind of sense of guilt toward some supernatural being is foolish: but we must feel ashamed and share the regret for that carnage for ever and ever, in order not to let it happen again.

Peace. ( )