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Biographies and Memoirs

The Drowned and the Saved

it. I sommersi e i salvati · 1986
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Interesting Facts

  • The book is a profound exploration of human nature and behavior under extreme conditions, based on the author's personal experience in Nazi concentration camps.
  • Primo Levi analyzes the psychological mechanisms that allowed people to survive in the camps, as well as those that led to moral decline.
  • One of the key themes of the book is the concept of the «gray zone»—the moral ambiguity faced by prisoners forced to collaborate with the Nazis to survive.
  • The author raises the question of how the memory of the Holocaust and its horrors is preserved and passed down through generations, and how it can be distorted or forgotten.
  • Levi explores the phenomenon of «survivor's shame,» the guilt many survivors felt after liberation for having lived while others perished.
The Drowned and the Saved
Date of publication: 8 January 2025
Last updated: 4 February 2025
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Author
Original titleit. I sommersi e i salvati · 1986