Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Survival in Auschwitz, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dehumanization and Resistance
Adaptability, Chance, and Survival
Moral Relativity
Racial Hierarchy
Oppression, Power, and Cruelty
Summary
Analysis
It is November and it has been raining for 10 days, making the prisoners miserable. Levi works in a ditch, sinking into the mud as he digs, alongside three other men. Among them is a young Hungarian named Kraus. He is a good worker, though clumsy, but he has not developed the “underground art of economizing on everything, on breath, movements, even thoughts.” A siren sounds, marking the end of a day that once seemed interminable, and now no longer exists in the prisoner’s minds as they march back. Time loses all meaning beyond the present in the Lager. The camp slang for “never” is “tomorrow morning.”
This short chapter primarily serves to demonstrate that nothing in the camp functions as it does in the outside world, such as the passage of time or feelings of cold and hunger. This is exemplified by Kraus himself, who, though seemingly a fine young man in the outside world, seems destined for an early death in the camps. The idea of “economizing on everything” suggests that, especially for those who have lived more than the first few months in the camps, there is a hard-learned, methodical art to survival.
Themes
Levi marches back next to Kraus, who is having difficulty keeping time with the march, made worse by the fact that he is attempting in poor German to apologize for his clumsiness (he does not share any other language with Levi). Levi stops him, and in painstakingly slow and clear German, tells Kraus that he had a dream of being home in Italy, of being well-fed, warm, dry, and happy, and that Kraus was there visiting him. In this dream Levi describes them dining together and enjoying each other’s company, happy and safe from the world they live in now.
Although Levi rather coldly believes that Kraus will not live long, his attempt to comfort him by telling him of a wonderful dream once again indicates that Levi has maintained a level of compassion that seems largely absent from most survivors. This again suggests that despite the dehumanizing force of the camp and the propensity of most prisoners to care only for their own needs, Levi still maintains some level of humanity.
Themes
Kraus is emotional and appreciative, making all manner of promises to see such a dream happen. But Levi observes to himself that while Kraus must have made an excellent civilian, he will not survive the Lager for long. His coming death is as “logical as a theorem.” Levi did not truly have any dream about Kraus, and outside of this “brief moment,” Kraus is as meaningless to Levi as everything is meaningless other than cold, hunger, and rain.
Levi’s deception is both compassionate and cold, a blatant lie to ease the mind of a dying man. This once again nods to morality being relative to one’s circumstances. Although Levi’s dream was a calculated lie, it does provide Kraus with a brief amount of comfort and relief from the fear and pain he experiences.
Themes
