Survival in Auschwitz
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1. The Journey Chapter 2. On the Bottom Chapter 3. Initiation Chapter 4. Ka-Be Chapter 5. Our Nights Chapter 6. The Work Chapter 7. A Good Day Chapter 8. This Side of Good and Evil Chapter 9. The Drowned and the Saved Chapter 10. Chemical Examination Chapter 11. The Canto of Ulysses Chapter 12. The Events of Summer Chapter 13. October 1944 Chapter 14. Kraus Chapter 15. Die drei Leute vom Labor Chapter 16. The Last One Chapter 17. The Story of Ten Days
Themes
All Themes Dehumanization and Resistance Adaptability, Chance, and Survival Moral Relativity Racial Hierarchy Oppression, Power, and Cruelty
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Primo Levi Alberto Lorenzo Null Achtzehn Kraus Henri Alfred L. Schepschel Elias Lindzin Resnyk Alex Jean Levi Doktor Pannwitz Sómogyi Arthur Charles
Terms
All Terms Lager Kapo Kommando Häftling
Symbols
All Symbols Tattooed Number Bread Shoes
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Survival in Auschwitz

by

Primo Levi
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Lorenzo Character Analysis

Lorenzo is an Italian citizen who smuggles food and clothing to Levi at Auschwitz each day. Although such contact is illegal and strictly punished, Lorenzo risks helping Levi anyway out of simple compassion, receiving no pay or benefit from the arrangement. Lorenzo never appears directly in the narrative and Levi does not even describe how they meet, but he credits Lorenzo with his own survival. However, it is not Lorenzo’s material gifts that save Levi. It is simply his acts of kindness which prove to Levi that somewhere in the world, goodness still exists that is worth living for, rather than giving oneself up to be destroyed by the barbarity of Auschwitz. Levi never reveals what comes of Lorenzo after the Germans flee and the Russians evacuate, though as an Italian non-Jewish citizen, it seems likely that he survives.

Lorenzo Quotes in Survival in Auschwitz

The Survival in Auschwitz quotes below are all either spoken by Lorenzo or refer to Lorenzo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Dehumanization and Resistance Theme Icon
).
Chapter 12. The Events of Summer Quotes

I believe that it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having reminded me by his presence, by his natural and plain manner of being good, that there still existed a a just world outside our own, something and someone still pure and whole, not corrupt, not savage, extraneous to hatred and terror; something difficult to define, a remote possibility of good, but for which it was worth surviving.

Related Characters: Primo Levi (speaker), Lorenzo
Dehumanization and Resistance Theme Icon
Adaptability, Chance, and Survival Theme Icon
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
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Lorenzo Quotes in Survival in Auschwitz

The Survival in Auschwitz quotes below are all either spoken by Lorenzo or refer to Lorenzo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Dehumanization and Resistance Theme Icon
).
Chapter 12. The Events of Summer Quotes

I believe that it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having reminded me by his presence, by his natural and plain manner of being good, that there still existed a a just world outside our own, something and someone still pure and whole, not corrupt, not savage, extraneous to hatred and terror; something difficult to define, a remote possibility of good, but for which it was worth surviving.

Related Characters: Primo Levi (speaker), Lorenzo
Dehumanization and Resistance Theme Icon
Adaptability, Chance, and Survival Theme Icon
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
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