Se questo è un uomo

Primo Levi, born in Italy in 1919, was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and remained there until the end of the war. In 1946, he wrote Se questo è un uomo, a poem which prefaces his memoir Survival in Auschwitz. Levi stressed that he wrote his autobiography as testimony to the suffering of European Jewry - and not as revenge against those who oppressed him. During his life he authored many books, including If Not Now, When? and The Periodic Table. In 1987 Primo Levi took his own life.

Translated by Sara Russell-Conley - UNR English Department