When slogans are raised again, can we stop the world from regressing?

The slogan "Don't forget 174517" is not unfamiliar to Europeans. It first appeared in the 1992 march against "neo-Nazism" on the streets of Rome; in 1994, Milan celebrated secession. Fascism appears again on the 49th anniversary, which is quite eye-catching. When slogans are raised again, can we stop the world from regressing? "174517" is the prisoner number of Italian national treasure writer Primo Levi in ??the "Ozvizi Concentration Camp". Primo Levi wrote: "My serial number is 174517; we are named, we have a number tattooed on our left arm, and we will bear this mark until our death." The numbers of the concentration camps are not randomly assigned, they represent a sequence Gender, the section of the number, indicates your nationality and origin. For example, numbers 30,000 to 80,000 are from the Jewish area of ??Poland, and 116,000-117,000 indicates that you are from Saloniko, Greece; the size of the number is the order of first come, first served, and also survival. proof. How slim are the chances of survival? About 650 people went to the concentration camp on the same train as Primo Levi. Only 95 men and 29 women were incorporated into the concentration camp and became the labor force. This method of judging based on age and body shape became simpler in the later period. When a train arrived at the station, the doors on both sides of the carriage were opened at the same time. People who got off on one side were sent to the concentration camp, and those who got off on the other side were sent to the gas chambers. Primo Levi wrote in "Reawakening" about his journey home after the disaster. In the hospital run by the Russians and temporarily housing patients, he met one of the 29 women. Five people survived; the number of men on Primo Levi's side was even lower.

When slogans are raised again, can we stop the world from regressing? The book I would like to recommend today is "Is This a Person?" This book is Primo Levi's reminiscences of the Osweiler Concentration Camp, describing his 11-month struggle to survive. This record is both a testimony to the evil deeds humans can commit and a tribute to those innocent people who have died due to racial discrimination.

This book first sold 2,500 copies in 1947. As you can imagine, it was well received but not a big hit. Presumably during those chaotic years, most people were still in dire straits and had no time to pay attention to the suffering of others. As we all know, Primo Levi was a chemist. He felt that after publishing this book, his task as a witness was over, and he had to return to the life of a professional chemist and no longer continue to create.

In 1958, Turin held a historical exhibition about Oswell, which received great response. Primo Levi was surrounded by young people asking questions about his past experiences. He felt the power of word communication again and handed the manuscript of "Is This a Person" to the publishing house for re-issuance? It can be imagined that this time it was a major success and was Translated into more than 40 languages, it has been extremely influential in narrative works about Oswell. After nearly 70 years, we finally have a Chinese version.

When commenting on Primo Levi’s works, people often mention his objectivity and calmness. Part of this comes from the rational thinking training of scientists, and the other part may come from his will to be independent of religious temptations. . "As long as there is Oswell, God does not exist." This sentence may anger religious people, but for Primo Levi, it is a very real experience. Heavy labor and hunger and cold caused people to die one by one. We also know the useless violence, meaningless demands for order, and the malice that tortures human nature in the concentration camps.

Primo Levi said in the book that the prisoners ate out of iron boxes, but they had no spoons and had to buy them on the black market (after liberation, they discovered that there were thousands of new plastic The ladle was well preserved); after their daily labor, they had to march in order to the music of the "German March".

What is unique about Primo Levi is that there is no religious nature in his narrative, either as a test of faith, or as a hope for rest in heaven. What he has is constant questioning and constant thinking about what kind of state causes humans to behave this way, and the meaning of this behavior. This takes us from the description of suffering to deep questioning.

When he first entered the concentration camp, he was extremely thirsty and bought a popsicle, but the guards took it away violently and received a beating. He had "a deep sense of astonishment, how could one beat a man like this without anger?" "Why?" Primo Levi asked. "There is no reason here." He understood for the first time the nature of the concentration camp. Primo Levi spent the last years of the concentration camp working in a chemical laboratory, which saved his life. Before I was lucky enough to enter, I had to go through various examinations and finally reached the final interview level. Primo Levi wrote about the way Dr. Panwitz looked at him, not as a person communicates with another person, but as a person looks at a goldfish, looking at another species: "And if I could explain The essence of that gaze can also explain the crazy nature of the German Third Reich. "In the imagination of later generations, people will one day produce heroic acts of resistance due to suppression. It is not that there are no such acts in concentration camps. These acts usually do not happen. Success, and their failure will lead to public hanging as the last line of defense against the will of humanity.

In fact, in order to save their own lives, most people either surrender, are aloof, selfish, or ignore others, and do all kinds of behaviors that exceed the tolerance of external morality. This is Primo Le The theme discussed in "The Gray Zone" in Wei's last book "The Drowned and the Saved". Primo Levi profoundly pointed out that in extreme circumstances, talking about morality is meaningless, or at least an invalid proposition. It was the concentration camp system that dehumanized people. He understood this, but did not stop here and led us to the humiliation he faced throughout his life.

We have to talk about the final death of Primo Levi. In April 1987, Primo Levi fell from the fourth floor of his apartment. If this was suicide, would it undermine his heroism in surviving the concentration camp? Or betrayal? ─Although Primo Levi always believed that the reason for his survival was luck. Some commentators even pointed out that "he eventually died in Oswell." James Wood's comments lead to suicide caused by illness and depression.

We cannot speculate on Primo Levi’s final thoughts. If Primo Levi committed suicide, then we must also take “shame” into consideration. Primo Levi knew that he was not wrong, but he thought that it was a shame for him to survive - the people who were willing to come forward died, and the people who were kinder and willing to share died - but he survived. This shame only expanded after returning to the normal world.

Primo Levi once wrote a story about giving water to his friends. The three people in the story all survived, but the friends who were not given water always had a barrier to him. The shame that turned into guilt surrounded Levi throughout his life. From his first book "Is This a Person" to his last work "The Drowned and the Rescued", the titles of the books clearly indicate his feelings about the past concentration camps. The act of survival produces remorse.

Perhaps, the sense of shame really overwhelmed Primo Levi in ??the end. In our opinion, his choice was noble, solemn and respectable.

We cannot know how people who have survived in the "grey zone" face their past existence and feel deeply ashamed? Deliberately forgetting? Or live a stable life? We only know that Primo Levi continued to question and record throughout his life, questioning himself and the facts that should not happen in the human world.

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