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Auschwitz Report
While in a Russian-administered holding camp in Katowice, Poland, in 1945, Primo Levi was asked to provide a report on living conditions in Auschwitz. Published the following year, it was then forgotten, and has until now remained unknown to a wider public.
Dating from the weeks and months immediately after the war, Auschwitz Report represents a fascinating and unusual return to the very earliest phase of Holocaust testimony. It details the author’s deportation to Auschwitz, selections for work and extermination, everyday life in the camp, and the organization and working of the gas chambers. It constitutes Levi’s first, astonishingly lucid attempts to come to terms with the raw horror of events that would drive him to create some of the greatest works of twentieth-century literature and testimony. Auschwitz Report is a major literary and historical discovery.
Dating from the weeks and months immediately after the war, Auschwitz Report represents a fascinating and unusual return to the very earliest phase of Holocaust testimony. It details the author’s deportation to Auschwitz, selections for work and extermination, everyday life in the camp, and the organization and working of the gas chambers. It constitutes Levi’s first, astonishingly lucid attempts to come to terms with the raw horror of events that would drive him to create some of the greatest works of twentieth-century literature and testimony. Auschwitz Report is a major literary and historical discovery.
97 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
21 people are currently reading
435 people want to read
About the author
Primo Levi
178 books2,329 followersPrimo Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor whose literary work has had a profound impact on how the world understands the Holocaust and its aftermath. Born in Turin in 1919, he studied chemistry at the University of Turin and graduated in 1941. During World War II, Levi joined the Italian resistance, but was captured by Fascist forces in 1943. Because he was Jewish, he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, where he endured ten harrowing months before being liberated by the Red army.
After the war, Levi returned to Turin and resumed work as a chemist, but also began writing about his experiences. His first book, If This Is a Man (published in the U.S. as Survival in Auschwitz), is widely regarded as one of the most important Holocaust memoirs ever written. Known for its clarity, restraint, and moral depth, the book offers a powerful testimony of life inside the concentration camp. Levi went on to write several more works, including The Truce, a sequel recounting his long journey home after liberation, and The Periodic Table, a unique blend of memoir and scientific reflection, in which each chapter is named after a chemical element.
Throughout his writing, Levi combined scientific precision with literary grace, reflecting on human dignity, morality, and survival. His later works included fiction, essays, and poetry, all characterized by his lucid style and philosophical insight. Levi also addressed broader issues of science, ethics, and memory, positioning himself as a key voice in post-war European literature.
Despite his success, Levi struggled with depression in his later years, and in 1987 he died after falling from the stairwell of his apartment building in Turin. While officially ruled a suicide, the exact circumstances of his death remain a subject of debate. Nevertheless, his legacy endures. Primo Levi’s body of work remains essential reading for its deep humanity, intellectual rigor, and unwavering commitment to bearing witness.
After the war, Levi returned to Turin and resumed work as a chemist, but also began writing about his experiences. His first book, If This Is a Man (published in the U.S. as Survival in Auschwitz), is widely regarded as one of the most important Holocaust memoirs ever written. Known for its clarity, restraint, and moral depth, the book offers a powerful testimony of life inside the concentration camp. Levi went on to write several more works, including The Truce, a sequel recounting his long journey home after liberation, and The Periodic Table, a unique blend of memoir and scientific reflection, in which each chapter is named after a chemical element.
Throughout his writing, Levi combined scientific precision with literary grace, reflecting on human dignity, morality, and survival. His later works included fiction, essays, and poetry, all characterized by his lucid style and philosophical insight. Levi also addressed broader issues of science, ethics, and memory, positioning himself as a key voice in post-war European literature.
Despite his success, Levi struggled with depression in his later years, and in 1987 he died after falling from the stairwell of his apartment building in Turin. While officially ruled a suicide, the exact circumstances of his death remain a subject of debate. Nevertheless, his legacy endures. Primo Levi’s body of work remains essential reading for its deep humanity, intellectual rigor, and unwavering commitment to bearing witness.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
September 21, 2015
It's ridiculous to rate this book. The main part was fact-filled - just bare bones and it was so horrible, but at the same time so empty of emotions that any rating would seem crazy.
However however Primo Levi wrote a gorgeous little ending on Leonardo De Benedetti, with whom he wrote that book. And that was worth a million stars.
However however Primo Levi wrote a gorgeous little ending on Leonardo De Benedetti, with whom he wrote that book. And that was worth a million stars.
March 4, 2015
A short medical essay written by Primo Levi about the medical diseases in Auschwitz. it's a fact filled book. not much of a personal anecdote or stories.
Short and to the point.
Short and to the point.
March 27, 2015
I saw this book on a shelf and was immediately drawn to the subject. It contains a medical report on conditions in Auschwitz by a doctor and former inmate --clinical, objective, and to the point.
It was interesting to read this death camp described in a calm and methodical manner, without the usual emphasis on the horrors and abuses.
Although I welcomed this fresh perspective, I couldn't help but feel an eerie undercurrent as I read the work, treating this subject as a detached lab report divided by categories and timelines. One could say it was almost 'Nazi-esque'.
Clearly not a definitive work on internment in German/Polish concentration camps, this title fills an interesting niche and should be a part of the "Holocaust Canon".
It was interesting to read this death camp described in a calm and methodical manner, without the usual emphasis on the horrors and abuses.
Although I welcomed this fresh perspective, I couldn't help but feel an eerie undercurrent as I read the work, treating this subject as a detached lab report divided by categories and timelines. One could say it was almost 'Nazi-esque'.
Clearly not a definitive work on internment in German/Polish concentration camps, this title fills an interesting niche and should be a part of the "Holocaust Canon".
February 26, 2017
This book is an unemotional report of some of the events, practices and routines in Auschwitz, written by a 25 year old chemist (Levi) and a middle-aged surgeon (de Benedetti); 2 of the few survivors who originally came from the detention camp in Fossoli, Italy.
Bleak, pale as the face of death, bare as bone. Levi and de Benedetti witness and account. The lack of obvious emotion -we are reading a report, not fiction- brings the horror into shards of sharp glass.
Bleak, pale as the face of death, bare as bone. Levi and de Benedetti witness and account. The lack of obvious emotion -we are reading a report, not fiction- brings the horror into shards of sharp glass.
Read
August 21, 2008It was an interesting, fact-filled book. Although a first hand account of the horror in and near Auschwitz, it is missing much of the emotion of any typically 'hollywood' movie. So in a sense, it is stripped of any hyperbole down to the bare essential details that made what happened there especially horrifying.
June 27, 2008
As the title suggests, this was originally written as a report that appeared in an Italian medical journal. Not only was it Levi’s first attempt to construct a meaningful narrative of what he had endured during the war, but it also represented one of the earlier examinations (outside the Nuremberg Trials) of conditions within the concentration camp system.
September 10, 2016
** Books 223 - 2016 **
3,8 of 5 stars!
This is an comprised report that written by Dr. Leonardo de Benedetti, compiled for the Soviet Army, on medical especially hygienic and sanitary conditions in the Monowitz (Auschwitz III) concentration camp. It is horrible and make me gasp when i read every single sentences. they doesn't deserve that kind of attitude! T___T
3,8 of 5 stars!
This is an comprised report that written by Dr. Leonardo de Benedetti, compiled for the Soviet Army, on medical especially hygienic and sanitary conditions in the Monowitz (Auschwitz III) concentration camp. It is horrible and make me gasp when i read every single sentences. they doesn't deserve that kind of attitude! T___T
June 5, 2019
Confronting to read about the medical atrocities that took place in one of the most infamous Nazi concentration camps. A firsthand account written by medical professionals, it describes the sorts of diseases and ailments experienced by prisoners as well as the treatments administered or rather, lack-thereof. Wonderful to also read some insight into Levi and de Benedetti’s friendship and how they both saved one another throughout the years. A piece of history, recorded shortly after liberation, and I felt pain at times reading about the experiments that took place and how they just allowed people to contract illnesses from one another. Many of these things I already knew about - being someone who knows a lot about this era - but reading eyewitness accounts will never not be confronting and eye opening. Very glad to have read this - a piece of history which I think deserves to be preserved for ages to come. Yes, it’s technically a document describing medical conditions but it also describes human spirit. I think it’s very important.
September 25, 2017
It's impossible to "rate" or "review" a work like this, but Primo Levi's cool, calm, and dispassionate reporting on the procedures and medical "care" provided at the Monowitz work camp of Auschwitz - with recurring patients eventually transferred to Birkenau and murdered in the gas chambers there - stands as essential reading.
Levi and his companion, Dr. Leonardo de Benedetti, not only survived the camp but later chronicled the experience in this clinical work. The emotional remove of the authors sets this work apart as one of the most clear-eyed accountings of the horrors perpetrated by industrial-era mass murder.
The emotion that comes into play is only in two separately appended documents, both remembrances Levi wrote to commemorate his lifelong friend Benedetti after his death in 1983. But it provides a spark of humanity that the two managed to keep alive both in the camp and for the rest of their lives.
Levi and his companion, Dr. Leonardo de Benedetti, not only survived the camp but later chronicled the experience in this clinical work. The emotional remove of the authors sets this work apart as one of the most clear-eyed accountings of the horrors perpetrated by industrial-era mass murder.
The emotion that comes into play is only in two separately appended documents, both remembrances Levi wrote to commemorate his lifelong friend Benedetti after his death in 1983. But it provides a spark of humanity that the two managed to keep alive both in the camp and for the rest of their lives.
December 23, 2020
A book about the medical conditions in Auschwitz. No more. No less. About the same content about the conditions as in Elie Wiesel’s Night, but with a clinical touch and without the personal experience. I found this book very hard to grade, hence the three stars.
May 22, 2024
An illuminating look into the experiences of the Holocaust as a primary source - this was compiled in the year following the liberation of the camps and as such the detail here is comprehensive, especially in regards to health and medicine in Auschwitz - as an introduction to Levi's work it makes me want to explore how else he elucidates his experiences, especially as he wrote his most famous book almost straight after
May 1, 2020
Tornar a Primo Levi sempre és un gaudi que aporta nous aspectes que no t'havies plantejat o reflexions que esfereixen, i més les de l'entrevista que recull el llibre. L'Informe que va coredactar permet veure, des d'un punt de vista força objectiu i mèdic, què eren els camps nazis.
July 26, 2019
A must for Holocaust readers. A report on the medical conditions in Auschwitz written right after the aftermath. I've read a lot of books on the topic but this one stands out. It's an objective report on how terrible the conditions were. It gives you another insight of the concentration camps. I read it in one hour!
June 11, 2024
fuck dude
July 31, 2023
A factual account of their time in Auschwitz-Monowitz and the liberation by the Russians.
Read
January 23, 2018I can't rate this book, simply because it's a report about something awful.
I will say a few things though.
1. The introduction of this, and the praise and unnecessary talk about how Primo Levi is so much more important because he wrote more than his partner, who died earlier was fucked up. I mean even all of the quotes on the back were for Primo's OTHER WORKS.
2. Because this is a medical report a lot of the medical jargon was lost on me, and unfortunately the only parts that hit me in the face were about the gas chambers and the unusual punishments given by doctors and nurses. I mean what the actual hell?
Anyway, read this if you're interested in a more in depth, comprehensive look at what was going on away from the memoir side of things.
I will say a few things though.
1. The introduction of this, and the praise and unnecessary talk about how Primo Levi is so much more important because he wrote more than his partner, who died earlier was fucked up. I mean even all of the quotes on the back were for Primo's OTHER WORKS.
2. Because this is a medical report a lot of the medical jargon was lost on me, and unfortunately the only parts that hit me in the face were about the gas chambers and the unusual punishments given by doctors and nurses. I mean what the actual hell?
Anyway, read this if you're interested in a more in depth, comprehensive look at what was going on away from the memoir side of things.
June 8, 2014
Levi laat in het boek zien hoe het met de hygiëne en ziekte behandelingen is gesteld in het werkkamp Monowitz. Monowitz is een dochterkamp van Auschwitz waar vele overwegend mannen zijn omgekomen door slechte behandeling. Er wordt weinig tot niets gedaan aan hygiëne en ziektes omdat er geen middelen ervoor beschikbaar zijn. Op verzoek van Leonardo de Benedetti schreef Levi deze rapportage voor de Russen.
Zowel De Benedetti als Levi hebben in dit kamp gezeten en weten zowel aan de kant als zieke en aan de kant van genezer hoe moeilijk het in het kamp was. Het boek is een verhaal uit de eerste hand waarbij het vooral een rapportage is om hard neer te zetten wat de waarheid is.
De twee sterren die ik geef, is omdat het niet echt een verhaal is. Er zit wel een tijdslijn in, maar het is waargebeurd. Daarnaast is het soms lastig te volgen over wie Levi het heeft of waar hij het precies over heeft. Het is een 'technische' rapportage. En terecht overigens. Maar het is voor mij niet volledig. Het zijn ervaringen en daar ben ik me bewust van maar het maakt er niet makkelijker op. Er is weinig achtergrond over de auteur en De Benedetti, maar wel een kijk op een periode in Monowitz.
Een echte recensie over dit boek is te lastig om te vertellen.
---
Over Primo Levi zijn een paar belangrijke dingen te vertellen. Hij is geboren in Turijn in 1919. Zijn ouders, Cesare en Ester zijn belezen en Ester speelt piano. Cesare werkt bijeen manufacture firma in Hongarije en was daar dan ook vaak. De familie Levi was een middelklasse Joods gezin die niet het geloof uitoefende behalve op feestdagen. Primo wist op jonge leeftijd al dat hij scheikundige wilde worden en ging uiteindelijk studeren aan de Universiteit van Turijn waar hij een proefschrift schreef. Wegens de opkomst van het antisemitisme werd hem geen baan aangeboden en werd het steeds lastiger om ergens een aanstelling te krijgen.
In 1940 kreeg Primo te horen dat zijn vader darmkanker had. En terwijl de oorlog uitbrak moest Primo ook nog onderduiken.
In 1942 ging Primo in het verzet en sloot zich in 1943 aan bij de Partizanen. Door een infiltrant werd datzelfde jaar de groep opgepakt. Toen men erachter kwam dat Primo Joods was, werd hij naar de doorgangskamp Fossoli gebracht. Vandaar uit werd hij als Joodse verzetstrijder doorgestuurd naar Auschwitz, waar hij in 1945 als 1 van de 5 overlevende de werkkamp Monowitz verliet. Hij was een bruikbare Jood doordat hij scheikundige was. Dat redde zijn leven.
In 1947 schreef hij voor het eerst over zijn ervaringen van de oorlog in Se questo è un umo (Is dit een mens?). Daarna schreef Primo nog meer boeken.
Over het genoemde boek is hieronder meer te vinden:
http://www.humanistischecanon.nl/ausc...
Op Goodreads is deze site:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Meer informatie is helaas vooral te vinden op wikileaks en andere sites die ik persoonlijk niet ken:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi
http://www.inch.com/~ari/levi1.html
---
©1946 Giulio Einaudi Editore
©2008 Nederlandse vertaling J.M. Meulenhoff b.v. Amsterdam
©2008 Inleiding Jacq Vogelaar en J.M. Meulenhoff b.v.
Oorspronkelijke titel: Rapporto sull'organizzazione igienico-Sanitaria del campo di concentrramento per ebrei di Monowitz (Auschwitz-Alta Silesia)
Vormgeving omslag: Suzan Beijer
Vormgeving binnenwerk: Ceevan Wee, Amsterdam
Afbeelding Voorzijde: Alberto Giacometti L'Homme que marche 1950 ©2007 beeldrecht Amsterdam
ISBN: 978.90.2908.120.7
94 pagina's; Hardcover
Zowel De Benedetti als Levi hebben in dit kamp gezeten en weten zowel aan de kant als zieke en aan de kant van genezer hoe moeilijk het in het kamp was. Het boek is een verhaal uit de eerste hand waarbij het vooral een rapportage is om hard neer te zetten wat de waarheid is.
De twee sterren die ik geef, is omdat het niet echt een verhaal is. Er zit wel een tijdslijn in, maar het is waargebeurd. Daarnaast is het soms lastig te volgen over wie Levi het heeft of waar hij het precies over heeft. Het is een 'technische' rapportage. En terecht overigens. Maar het is voor mij niet volledig. Het zijn ervaringen en daar ben ik me bewust van maar het maakt er niet makkelijker op. Er is weinig achtergrond over de auteur en De Benedetti, maar wel een kijk op een periode in Monowitz.
Een echte recensie over dit boek is te lastig om te vertellen.
---
Over Primo Levi zijn een paar belangrijke dingen te vertellen. Hij is geboren in Turijn in 1919. Zijn ouders, Cesare en Ester zijn belezen en Ester speelt piano. Cesare werkt bijeen manufacture firma in Hongarije en was daar dan ook vaak. De familie Levi was een middelklasse Joods gezin die niet het geloof uitoefende behalve op feestdagen. Primo wist op jonge leeftijd al dat hij scheikundige wilde worden en ging uiteindelijk studeren aan de Universiteit van Turijn waar hij een proefschrift schreef. Wegens de opkomst van het antisemitisme werd hem geen baan aangeboden en werd het steeds lastiger om ergens een aanstelling te krijgen.
In 1940 kreeg Primo te horen dat zijn vader darmkanker had. En terwijl de oorlog uitbrak moest Primo ook nog onderduiken.
In 1942 ging Primo in het verzet en sloot zich in 1943 aan bij de Partizanen. Door een infiltrant werd datzelfde jaar de groep opgepakt. Toen men erachter kwam dat Primo Joods was, werd hij naar de doorgangskamp Fossoli gebracht. Vandaar uit werd hij als Joodse verzetstrijder doorgestuurd naar Auschwitz, waar hij in 1945 als 1 van de 5 overlevende de werkkamp Monowitz verliet. Hij was een bruikbare Jood doordat hij scheikundige was. Dat redde zijn leven.
In 1947 schreef hij voor het eerst over zijn ervaringen van de oorlog in Se questo è un umo (Is dit een mens?). Daarna schreef Primo nog meer boeken.
Over het genoemde boek is hieronder meer te vinden:
http://www.humanistischecanon.nl/ausc...
Op Goodreads is deze site:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Meer informatie is helaas vooral te vinden op wikileaks en andere sites die ik persoonlijk niet ken:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi
http://www.inch.com/~ari/levi1.html
---
©1946 Giulio Einaudi Editore
©2008 Nederlandse vertaling J.M. Meulenhoff b.v. Amsterdam
©2008 Inleiding Jacq Vogelaar en J.M. Meulenhoff b.v.
Oorspronkelijke titel: Rapporto sull'organizzazione igienico-Sanitaria del campo di concentrramento per ebrei di Monowitz (Auschwitz-Alta Silesia)
Vormgeving omslag: Suzan Beijer
Vormgeving binnenwerk: Ceevan Wee, Amsterdam
Afbeelding Voorzijde: Alberto Giacometti L'Homme que marche 1950 ©2007 beeldrecht Amsterdam
ISBN: 978.90.2908.120.7
94 pagina's; Hardcover
July 26, 2015
An understandably dry read for the most part the main body of this text is comprised of a report by Dr. Leonardo de Benedetti, compiled for the Soviet Army, on medical conditions in the Monowitz (Auschwitz III) concentration camp. Having said that, however, it must be noted that this is a factual text, a document, a report, and yet I couldn't say that the book is any less interesting than, say, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a fictionalised account of a Siberian gulag that its author in theory had freedom to add more interesting detail to. As medical reports go, it must be said, I suspect you'd be hard pressed to find many that would be of greater interest. The report's heavy use of medical terminology combined with the gaps in the attached glossary made the book a harder read than I expected and certainly disrupted, for me, any momentum the book might have garnered but, again, this is entirely forgivable when mainstream publication of the text was never its intended aim.
The book's intro and outro are the parts most clearly written by Primo Levi, my reason for purchasing the book, and these parts are undeniably tough to read. Through clear, uncompromising prose Levi recounts the annihilation on arrival at the camp of the vast majority of the survivors of his intake's train journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau; he tells of the cruelty within the camp, most surprisingly the cruelty visited on prisoners by prisoners; he tells of the bizarre collection of circumstances that allowed those liberated by the Soviets to remain in the camp and he comments on what he understands to have happened to those who were deemed fit enough for the death march that took place from the camp heading for the heart of the Reich's territory.
Auschwitz Report is probably primarily a book for Primo Levi completionists and those with a heavy interest in either history, medicine, or both but I'm certainly happier for having actually read it rather than leaving my curiosity along with the book on the shelf in Waterstones.
The book's intro and outro are the parts most clearly written by Primo Levi, my reason for purchasing the book, and these parts are undeniably tough to read. Through clear, uncompromising prose Levi recounts the annihilation on arrival at the camp of the vast majority of the survivors of his intake's train journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau; he tells of the cruelty within the camp, most surprisingly the cruelty visited on prisoners by prisoners; he tells of the bizarre collection of circumstances that allowed those liberated by the Soviets to remain in the camp and he comments on what he understands to have happened to those who were deemed fit enough for the death march that took place from the camp heading for the heart of the Reich's territory.
Auschwitz Report is probably primarily a book for Primo Levi completionists and those with a heavy interest in either history, medicine, or both but I'm certainly happier for having actually read it rather than leaving my curiosity along with the book on the shelf in Waterstones.
October 18, 2009
I read this alongside Fatelessness by Kertész.
This edition ends with Primo Levi's obituaries for co-author Leonardo de Benedetti. They are short and beautiful statements of love and friendship.
"Apparently frail, he possessed a rare strength of mind which showed itself more in endurance than in action and which communicated itself invaluably to those who were close to him... In the intervals between those death sentences and temporary reprieves he remained as he was, frail but not broken by the brutal life of the Lager, mildly and calmly aware, a friend to everyone, incapable of rancor, without anguish and without fear."
This edition ends with Primo Levi's obituaries for co-author Leonardo de Benedetti. They are short and beautiful statements of love and friendship.
"Apparently frail, he possessed a rare strength of mind which showed itself more in endurance than in action and which communicated itself invaluably to those who were close to him... In the intervals between those death sentences and temporary reprieves he remained as he was, frail but not broken by the brutal life of the Lager, mildly and calmly aware, a friend to everyone, incapable of rancor, without anguish and without fear."
Read
November 22, 2016When I read the report a few months ago, I gave it 3 stars. Now (November 2016) - in hindsight - I realised that I made a mistake; I therefore decided to clear my rating. This is a report, it does not narrate a story and is not meant to be entertaining. Its purpose is to present facts in an objective unbiased manner.
If one is looking for a more personal, heartrending, account of the Holocaust, one should read Primo Levi's books: 'Se questo é un uomo' (If this is a Man) and 'La Tregua'.(The Truce) and many more. Not this one.
If one is looking for a more personal, heartrending, account of the Holocaust, one should read Primo Levi's books: 'Se questo é un uomo' (If this is a Man) and 'La Tregua'.(The Truce) and many more. Not this one.
December 23, 2016
A harrowing piece of history that should be mandatory reading in all schools. The fact that there are survivors is miraculous unto itself but after reading this report, the word survivor takes on a whole new meaning for me! Unfortunately, these atrocities go on everyday, namely Syria! Shameful how we just never learnfrom our past.
January 31, 2015
Much of what is contained here forms the basis of "If This is a Man" though the medical input of De Benedetti makes reading it worth reading in its own right. Levi remains one of the foremost chroniclers of the Holocaust.
April 20, 2015
A sobering read, timely given the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This book, really a clinical report of the situation in the camp, should be read by anyone who doubts what happened there.
April 8, 2008
Of historical interest only. Spend your time reading his better known books.
July 24, 2016
It's a report; my expectations were a bit too high. The subject matter wasn't groundbreaking, either - not to me, at least.
July 9, 2012
This was literally a report, not a novel, but it was interesting to get a different and more objective perspective since I've become very used to reading memoirs on the same content.
November 3, 2012
So unbelievable that these things actually happened. While reading was picturing Auschwitz and Birkenau camps since have toured the camps so it was that much more real for me.
March 17, 2015
no review. just read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews