The Worth of Living

Chapter 4: Ka-Be
Primo Levi, in this chapter, hurts himself one day while at work, and is sent to Ka-Be, where sick people are sent to temporarily, either to be healed and put back to work or to be killed of uselessness. As I read about Schmulek being killed, I wondered how his friend Walter felt. He lost his friend in this place of hopelessness and despair, and therefore loses more hope and will to survive. As I thought about this, I then pondered about the issue of survival itself in the concentration camps. Is there any worth of surviving the persecution of the Nazi’s? If one can remain alive until he escapes the concentration camps, can he regain a life of dignity and normality?
I personally think that once one enters the concentration camps and goes through a significant amount of brutal persecution and degradation by the Nazi’s, there is barely any worth of living. It may actually be that dying soon in the camps is better than suffering the conditions for a long time; one may actually rest in peace once one is dead, while there is no peace to a life of a “concentration camper.” Even after Germany loses World War II and one gains freedom again, one will frequently be reminded and haunted of the experiences in the camps. It is definitely a torture that one can not forget about such horrible experiences, which is usually the case with survived campers. Primo Levi might have actually committed suicide because of this; he did not want to live as he was constantly haunted by his past experiences at the Lager.
There is one crucial concept that is worth surviving for. The survivors of the persecution can inform the world about the treatment they received from the Nazi’s, along with the genocide of the Jews and others. When the world is shocked by this fact, it will strive to prevent such events from happening again (although this was not successful, as there are genocides occurring at this moment).
Honestly, I would have given up any hope to live if I was in the camps. I would not be able to bear the tortures given to me and still have a desire to survive. However, Primo Levi did, and was able to spread the horrors of the Holocaust through many ways including writing this book.