Primary Sources: The Holocaust: Levi, Primo

Primo Levi discusses If Not Now, When?, his forthcoming novel published in 1986. It was his first work of fiction and was based on his experiences as a partisan in Italy before his betrayal, capture and subsequent removal to Auschwitz. He also describes the circumstances that allowed him to survive the camp and recalls a surprising encounter with one of the camp's doctors some years later.

Levi took his own life in 1987, some say as a result of the guilt he suffered at his survival of the Holocaust, following a bout of severe depression. His camp number remained tattooed on his arm and was also engraved on his headstone.