The Slave Labor Camp, Buna, By Primo Levi - 1051 Words

From birth, three basic necessities are recognized as vital in order to sustain life, those being clothing, shelter, and food (which also includes water). With these three basic requirements met, a human can survive. However surviving and living one’s life fully as a human are separate things, and the question must be asked does the limitation of food to the bare minimum required to continue sustaining one’s body begin to also impinge on one’s humanity (which for the purposes of this paper will be defined as the entire human existence, physically, emotionally, and otherwise) in a more thorough way? Food is a prime example of how the slave labor camp, Buna, as told by Primo Levi in his memoir Survival in Auschwitz, attempted to dehumanize Levi. Levi begins with the journey (the literal one) at a camp in Italy where he is being held. It was announced by the Germans that Jews would be leaving the camp - destination unknown. Loaded onto buses, the crowds were ta ken to a train station where they boarded and were off. Levi recalls the discomfort of the train and accounts of others around him. Upon arrival, the men and women were separated, and soon thereafter Levi, unaware the same fate awaited him, first witnessed a prisoner. From entering the camp and onward, he is confused by the atrocities occurring around him. Levi goes through the motions of admittance, shower, tattoo, new uniform, barrack assignment and then began the long tortuous year, where his will was soShow MoreRelatedAuschwitz: a Prisoner Camp, an Industrial Camp, and a Death Camp3326 Words   |  14 PagesAuschwitz: a prisoner camp, an industrial camp, and a death camp â€Å"†¦Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habit, his cloth, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself. He will be a man whose life or death can be lightly decided with no sense of human affinity, in the most fortunate of cases, on the basis