(1)     As for survival, this is a question that I put to myself many times and that many have put to me. I insist that there was no general rule, except entering the camp in good health and knowing German. Barring this, luck dominated. I have seen the survival of shrewd people and silly people, the brave and the cowardly, ‘thinkers’ and madmen. In my case, luck played an essential role on at least two occasions: in leading me to meet the Italian bricklayer and in my getting sick only once, but at the right moment. [Levi, a sick invalid by 1945, was left behind in the camp as the Germans retreated westward, taking 20,000 prisoners with them.]

– Primo Levi was born in Turin in 1919 and trained as a chemist. He was arrested and transported to Auschwitz in 1944. He has written some of the most enduring works on WWII and the Holocaust.