The Drowned and the Saved [Paperback]

He begins with the concept of "good faith", wondering whether believing a lie excuses it. He notes that oppressors lie to save themselves from believing they are evil, and victims lie to save themselves from believing they suffer. He explores the moral zone between black and white, noting that anybody can be a tough killer or a foolish victim: we are all tyrants and victims in our own way.

He examines survivor's guilt, and reflects on the roles of luck versus blessing in life, and discusses the ways humans need communication to survive, including the way victims bend language to disguise their intentions, and tyrants twist it to cause confusion among their victims.

He tries to distinguish between rationalized evil and collective madness. He believes the spirit and mind can be injured just as the body can, and wonders how a person's perspective plays a role in their survival and psychological health. He describes the various stereotypes people hold when they imagine the stories of those who lived through WWII, e.g., the romantic hero, the evil Nazi, the prisoner who always plots escape, and so on, but explains why they are rough and inaccurate.

Each chapter is like a conversation with an intelligent and qualified author. It is thoughtful, and a pleasure to read. It reflects on psychological and historical themes which are important not only to our understanding of the Holocaust, but also more generally human nature. (It appears to be a rumination on subjects discussed in his other books, collected and summarized briefly here.) It is for this reason that the book is successful. It considers the Holocaust in particular, but its themes are actually deeper and more universal.

"Letters from Germans", the penultimate chapter, is the book's most powerful, noticeably demonstrating the tension between his memory of that time period, and the memory of various Germans, in their own words. He especially berates those who believe they are doing the right thing by speaking out in shame and guilt over theit past, perhaps attacking them a bit harshly, but certainly with justification. The last chapter, "Conclusion", is its weakest. In the opinion of this reviewer, it over-generalizes, and tries to apply retrospective analysis to the world's future. It also calls for unwarranted conclusions, unrelated to the preceding chapters, and perhaps contradicts itself. Luckily it is brief, and does not detract from the excellence of the prior explorations.

(For example, he says war is unecessary, and mankind can settle all conflicts around a table, but only as long as we are in good faith. He then calls Hitler a buffoon, implying he cannot be taken in good faith. He next says we need not have good faith to negotiate if we are all equally in fear of war, but this sounds like he is saying war is necessary after all, even if only to remind us there are punishments for negotiation in bad faith!)

Despite its conclusion (which many readers will probably enjoy, despite this reviewer's belief it over-reaches), the book is an intelligent and even-handed, but personal assessment of the Holocaust, written in an engaging and intelligent style, with brevity and wit. At 200 pages, it is easy to read. Packed with philosophy and insight, it is worth the investment.

In The Drowned and the Saved, Levi provides a discerning and articulate exposition of the psychological and sociological peculiarities of the Auschwitz camp--ideas virtually unexplored in popular literature and movies. Throughout the work, he discusses the collective responsibility of nonvictims (in his view, the entire German population) and of the moral dilemmas that arose in a horribly victimized, imprisoned community that was wildly pluralistic (in nationality, language, religion, education, trade, and individual personality). (Tensions between the disparate concepts of collective and individual responsibilities are mostly implicitly explored and not fully crystallized, however, by the author.) Levi explains the complex hierarchy and moral "gray zone" among Auschwitz prisoners who severely compromised humanitarian considerations for fellow inmates and supported the camp's illogical infrastructure to improve survival. Deep anguish befell the unfortunate intellectual who attempted to make sense of his utterly nonsensical existence.

In "Shame," "Communicating," and "Useless Violence," Levi expatiates the Nazi perpetration of its systematic dehumanization, from the moment of transport to complete demoralization entrenched shortly after arrival. The explanation is necessary for the contemporary reader to understand later the feelings of absurdity (or even offense) aroused in the Auschwitz survivor when faced with the external world's disbelief that escape and revolt were not often thought of, much less attempted. In Auschwitz, escape and revolt did occur, to be sure, but infrequently and more often among the better fed and less severely victimized prisoners who were multilingual (most were imprisoned in a foreign country). And failed attempts were invariably countered by the SS's extremely public and vicious brands of individual and general punishment.

Levi concludes his reflective work by presenting selected letters from ignorant and/or apologetic Germans after publication of his 1947 memoir (which the reader is advised to read beforehand). Finally Levi warns of the repetition of a kind of Auschwitz, if the core memory of it and the German responsibility for it are not maintained. But even Levi's reflective considerations of this peculiar historical hell are difficult, if not impossible, for the contemporary reader without direct connection to the Holocaust to know fully or hold onto. Periodic re-reading of Levi's writing is therefore recommended.

If you are now living in an affluent democratic society, the book leads you to wonder, "Would I recognize the warning signs? If I were a victim, would I descend into barbarism? If I were not, would I have the courage to speak on their behalf? Would I become a monster?"