Sergio Luzzatto, “You,” “We,” and “I”: The Pronouns of the Final Solution

Perhaps Primo Levi would have become a writer even without the ordeal of Auschwitz. But he would have been a different writer had the history of the twentieth century not indelibly marked the young Italian chemist’s life with the experience of that abyss. Hence, his works must also be read through the lens of historical analysis—to untangle the complex interplay between documented fact and literary transfiguration. Primo Levi has entered history as the quintessential witness to the Final Solution. Yet, to what extent should his formidable testimony be reconsidered today as being at once a documented historical artifact and a product of literary craftsmanship?