Born in 1919 as the son of an electrical engineer and his wife, Primo Levi and his family enjoyed a pleasant middle-class life in Turin, Italy. Levi then entered the University of Turin as a chemistry student in 1937, a year before all Jews were segregated, persecuted and banned from public schools due to the Fascist "racial laws. Although he was able to complete his college degree in l941, his diploma included the exclusionary phrase "di razza ebraica" ("of the Jewish race"). Thus not even seven years later, Levi joined 6,400 other Italians who were being sent to concentration camps in Auschwitz, Birkenau and Mathausen. At the end of the war, he was one of only 23 of the 650 Auschwitz prisoners to survive. As described in his book Survival in Auschwitz, Levi witnessed and somehow lived through one of the most terrifying and brutal times in all of human history. He wrote this book to be a spokesperson for the millions of those who died without telling their story. More so, he wrote it to try once again to explain to himself how humans could be so ruthless. As a scientist, he continually searched for an answer to this question. Regardless of his efforts, he never found a reason.

             In 1947, when Levi wrote If This Is a Man (later called in English Survival in Auschwitz) about his experiences in the extermination camp, the world was not prepared to hear about this terrible ordeal and only a total of 1,500 books were sold. It is easy to understand why Levi's book was not well received, especially in Italy and other parts of Western Europe. World War II had just come to an end and people wanted to forget what happened and move on with their lives. He stated that his account into hell was not in line with the upbeat optimism of the times. People in Italy were excited about rebuilding Italian society after 23 years of Fascist rule and too bogged down by Levi's soberness His scientific, straightforward descriptions of the horrors around him made the events even more unsettling.