Primo Levi- If this is a man

The story that describes Primo Levi's journey from Italy to Auschwitz gave me a new incite to what the event was like for a Jew at the time. It also showed me how the Germans planned and initiated the the killings of over 3 million Jews. Primo Levi showed me that all men and woman were condemned to die from the start, this is because the small ration of food is not enough to survive while long hard work throughout the day is done. So the only was to survive is half luck half risk. The risk has to be taken with the trading and stealing system that Primo did to gain more rations of food. Also friends that have connections to people with food. Primo was lucky to have a job as a organic chemist which allowed him to warmth and other needs for him to survive. Also he was not chosen for the gas chambers, and was sick when the Russians were close so he was not sent off to the gas chambers at the last possible second. All these factors along with the persistence to stay alive helped Primo Levi to survive. It also made me realise how horribly they were treated by the Germans and how they were faced with death every day. I knew before the book that they were treated badly but this describes the starvation, disease, beatings, back breaking work and the cold winters they suffered through. Even if you did everything right and did not get caught you could be selected to go to the gas chambers just to make room for more prisoners.