As you read through the first three chapters of Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, as well as the biographical information at http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/primo.htm, here are a list of questions to keep in mind for Tuesday's upcoming class:
1. Survival in Auschwitz was originally titled If This is a Man. How does this knowledge change your expectations as you begin the work? Does the poem at the beginning of the biographical information offer any insight into what Levi had intended when he wrote the text?
2. In the very first chapter, Levi recalls that a German officer asked during roll call, "Wieviel Stück?" (or, "how many pieces?"). How does Levi heighten this sense of dehumanization in the opening chapters through anecdotes, examples, and dialogue?
3. How would you characterize the initial experience of deportation and arrival at the camps, according to Levi's account? What confusion (if any) did they encounter?
4. What rules do the inmates face? How is the camp system run? How does propaganda operate?
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