Ist das ein Mensch?

This volume describes the year Primo Levi spent in Auschwitz: from February 1944 to January 1945. "I did not write this book to make new accusations," Levi says, "but as a document for the study of some central aspects of human inner life." The central question, of course, the titular question, is answered by Levi in two ways: a person is one who kills, who inflicts or suffers injustice. However, no one is a person who waits for their neighbor to finally die so they can take a quarter of bread from them, nor is anyone a person who continues to murmur their agreement even in the throes of death. And more indelible than the tattoos on their forearms is the memory for the survivors of the time when they were not considered human.