Prisoner
Primo is only 24 years old when he's captured by the Italian Fascist forces. He's been hiding out with a group of rebels in the woods, and is rounded up with a lot of other Jewish prisoners (rudely referred to as "pieces") and taken to Auschwitz. He's stripped of all his belongings, literally stripped naked, and has all his hair shaven off. Even his name is even taken away from him. Like all concentration camp inmates, he's assigned just a number for identification: 174517.
Primo is educated (he's just recently completed his degree in Chemistry) and articulate (just check out his vast vocabulary). Did we mention philosophical? That, too. He notes that the crowd he hangs with is governed by "civilized Cartesian phantoms" and that his ideas about the Resistance movement are all quite abstract (1.1).
This bookish guy is definitely not the strongest physical specimen, and he describes himself as "weak and clumsy" (4.7). But he's a hard worker and very savvy. For example, he tries to pair himself with stronger guys when they're doing difficult labor—which is all the time. He also (like lots of the other prisoners) takes as much advantage as possible in taking off to the bathroom. Sadly, that's the only place where these workers can get a few minutes of rest during their seriously hard work day.
Survival Instincts
Primo may be a stereotypical example of an intelligent nerdy type, but he's got some traits that help him during his imprisonment in Auschwitz. For one, he's stubborn:
"The more I think about it, the more washing one's face in our condition seems a stupid feat, even frivolous: a mechanical habit, or worse, a dismal repetition of an extinct rite" (3.10).
Despite his friend Steinlauf's warnings, Primo doesn't want to take the time to wash himself. He'd rather use that time for self-reflection, to "weigh things up" (3.10). What's ironic is that this time for reflection actually leads to Primo accepting Steinlauf's ideas—that the prisoners must try to hold onto at least a small slice of civilization, no matter how hard the Nazis try to reduce them to animals.
Primo also has a solid sense of intuition. He can read people and has a knack for telling whether or not they're telling the truth, or at least leaving out a big chunk of the truth. Here's an example. Remember the Italian dentist who comes in and gives all of the new prisoners the lowdown on what life in the camp is like? He mentions things like "concerts and football matches" and "prize-coupons" that prisoners can win for good work (2.18). This might sound like a good deal to some of the prisoners, but Primo is having none of it: "I still think that even this dentist [...] wanted to amuse himself at our expense, and I do not want to believe a word of what he said" (2.18).
This type of intuition allows Primo to size up different situations. This helps him be relatively successful in his various plans of stealing items at the lab and trading them later for extra food. He has the sense that the lab personnel won't be too keen on checking them every time they go to the bathroom, so he sews a little secret pocket into his jacket for smuggling out valuable items.
It's All About Compassion
One of the most important lessons Primo learns while in Auschwitz is the importance of compassion—of at least trying to have a small community of people who look out for each other and share their resources.
Who first teaches this lesson to Primo? That would be Lorenzo. He's also an Italian, but a civilian worker and not a prisoner. This means he can get into huge trouble for the bread and soup he illegally gives to Primo. And Lorenzo wants absolutely nothing in return for this. Nada. Zilch. Of course, this is quite unusual in the camp, where it's usually every man for himself. To get any extra food or small comforts, you have to trade for things in the underground Exchange Market.
Primo admits that the reason he's still alive is because of Lorenzo. He says that Lorenzo's "humanity was pure and uncontaminated" and that because of him he "managed not to forget that [he himself] was a man" (12.24).
Because of this insight, Primo maintains his friendship with Alberto, and the pair share equally everything they get. He also later bands together with Arthur and Charles, the two French prisoners he's with in Ka-Be when the Nazis evacuate the camp. Image
The community he forms with Arthur and Charles is particularly key in saving Primo's life, since things go from bad to worse once the Nazis leave (hard to believe, right?). This small group sets up a sort of work detail, with certain guys assigned to look for food, do the cooking, and keep their small hut warm. They even take care of each other when they're sick, while many of the other prisoners ignore those who are too far gone. Here we see Charles helping out Lakmaker, who is ill with typhus and has soiled his bed:
"Charles climbed down from his bed and dressed in silence. While I held the lamp, he cut all the dirty patches from the straw mattress and the blankets with a knife. He lifted Lakmaker from the ground with the tenderness of a mother, cleaned him as best as possible with straw taken from the mattress and lifted him into the remade bed in the only position in which the unfortunate fellow could lie." (17.103)
Primo believes that it's this compassion for others that's most important to remaining a human being. This is what helps him survive
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