Journal 12 : The Events of Summer

But Lorenzo was a man; his humanity was pure and uncontaminated, he was outside this world of negotiation.
Levi finally answers the question that has recurred numerous times in his book: Who is a man? In the chaotic hierarchy at Auschwitz, the answer to this question was impossible to attain. The SS officials were too barbaric and ridden with lust, corruption and avarice to be called men, in the true sense of the term. They were sadists who derived pleasure from the pain of others. The detainees had forgotten about the basic instincts and emotions that constituted a man. Yet, among them was Lorenzo, a person who had retained his selflessness and pure nature, and was a man in its true sense. This is in some aspects to Marc Antony’s description of Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he-- did that they did in envy of great Caesar; He, only in general honest thought-- and common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up-- And say to all the world, 'This was a man!” Lorenzo exemplified the true essence of mankind. Even though he himself was in mental turmoil detained at Auschwitz, he helped Levi by giving him a piece of bread and the remainder of his ration everyday for six months, as well as sending a postcard on Levi’s behalf to Italy. This altruism was something unique in circumstances where everyone seemed to be competing with one another, and attempting to run each other down.
Another idea conveyed in this chapter is that of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Germans had made Auschwitz worse than the grim environs of Tartarus, and the retribution for this came in the form of the bombings by the Allied troops during World War II. This is made clear in the following quote from the book: “At Buna the German civilians raged with the fury of the secure man who wakes up from a long dream of domination and sees his own ruin and is unable to understand it.” The presumption of the Germans had finally been shattered. They had to now pay the price for the torment and torture they had inflicted on the Jews !