Work #711 · Mid period

If This Is a Man (Se questo è un uomo)

Primo Levi's 1947 foundational text of Holocaust survivor literature

Primo Levi · 1947 (rev. 1958) · Italian · Holocaust memoir

Tradition: Holocaust survivor literature

Primo Levi's 1947 foundational Holocaust survivor memoir — Auschwitz testimony

If This Is a Man (Se questo è un uomo), known in the US as Survival in Auschwitz, is Primo Levi's 1947 foundational Holocaust memoir — central themes: Levi's arrest as Italian-Jewish partisan, deportation to Auschwitz (1944-45), survival as chemist-laborer at Buna-Monowitz, the dehumanization of camp life and the persistence of human dignity. The work is foundational for Holocaust witness literature and post-Shoah ethics.

Editions cited

Se questo è un uomo (Francesco De Silva, 1947; Einaudi, 1958, rev. edn); English: If This Is a Man / Survival in Auschwitz, trans. Stuart Woolf (Orion / Collier, 1959; 1986)

Compare this work

School Embodiments

Rabbinic Judaism · 20%

Critical Realism · 15%

Realism · 15%

Existentialism · 10%

Phenomenology · 10%

Nihilism · 10%

Jewish Philosophy (Maimonidean) · 5%

Liberal Theology · 5%

Absurdism · 5%

Naturalism · 5%

Rabbinic Judaism 20%

Italian-Jewish background.

"Italian-Jewish." (If This Is a Man)

Critical Realism 15%

Critical-realist documentary-witness.

"Critical-realist documentary." (If This Is a Man)

Realism 15%

Restrained-realist Holocaust witness.

"Restrained-realist Holocaust." (If This Is a Man)

Existentialism 10%

Humanist-existentialist orientation.

"Humanist-existentialist." (If This Is a Man)

Phenomenology 10%

Phenomenology of dehumanization and dignity.

"Phenomenology of dehumanization." (If This Is a Man)

Nihilism 10%

Confrontation with the nihilist abyss of Auschwitz.

"Nihilist abyss of Auschwitz." (If This Is a Man)

Jewish Philosophy (Maimonidean) 5%

Jewish-philosophical engagement.

"Jewish-philosophical." (If This Is a Man)

Liberal Theology 5%

Engagement with broader humanist tradition.

"Humanist." (If This Is a Man)

Absurdism 5%

Engagement with the absurdity of Auschwitz.

"Absurdity of Auschwitz." (If This Is a Man)

Naturalism 5%

Levi's chemist-scientific orientation.

"Chemist-scientific." (If This Is a Man)

Internal Tensions

If This Is a Man foundational for Holocaust witness literature and post-Shoah ethics.

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I. Time

The historical time of Auschwitz 1944-45.

Attributes

Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Substantival Grain: Continuous Freedom: Non-Deterministic Traversability: Linear Direction: Uni-directional Dimensionality: One

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II. Space

The Auschwitz-Buna-Monowitz camp space.

Attributes

Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Substantival Curvature: Flat Dimensionality: Three Locality: Local

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III. Matter

The embodied prisoner.

Attributes

Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Substantival Conservation: Conserved Dimensionality: Three Locality: Local

◎

IV. Observer

Primo Levi as Holocaust survivor-witness.

Attributes

Time Instance: Single Space Instance: Single Knowledge Extent: Partial Knowledge Retainment: Total Physicality: Embodied Agency: Both Number: Plural Metaphysical Agency: None

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V. Energy

Energies of survival and witness.

Attributes

Extent: Infinite Ontological Status: Substantival Conservation: Conserved Dispersibility: Irreversible

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VI. Information

Foundational Holocaust survivor-witness framework.

Attributes

Ontological Status: Substantival Cosmic Conservation: Conserved Personal Conservation: Conserved Granularity: Continuous

Personas with the nearest attribute fingerprint

Historical figures whose own classification on the same six-dimensional grid lands closest to this work's. Computed by attribute-agreement on coordinates both address.

Computed school proximity

The work's attribute fingerprint scored against all schools using the same quiz scorer. Useful as a sanity check on the hand-curated embodiments above.

Christianity (Generic)

22/26

67%

Protestant Reformation (Magisterial)