Journal 16: The Last One

To destroy a man is difficult, almost as difficult to create one: it has not been easy, nor quick, but you Germans have succeeded.

In my opinion, this is perhaps the most powerful quote in the entire text. As the story draws towards its end, Levi brings up the theme of the measure of a man, which complies with the original title of the story, "If this be a man..." The creation and evolution of Man has been an intricate process. However,on the contrary shattering the divine image we all have been created in is extremely simple. The Germans did exactly the same and succeeded in crushing out the spark of both, divinity and life from all the detainees at Auschwitz. The chapter begins with a description of how the menaschka was a symbol of superiority and how a sense of reputation had to be won over by futile and ridiculous efforts such as the menaschka. In normal human society, reputation and prestige is accorded on the basis of your acts and purity of one's thoughts. At Auschwitz, everything was different. A man was recognized, not for who he was, but for what he was. The perception of attributes of a person had degraded to the extent that wrong and flawed judgements about a person were made !