The Truce

The sequel to If This is a Man, The Truce is Primo Levi’s autobiographical description of his journey from the Auschwitz concentration camp back to his home in Turin, Italy. To me, this book is the depiction of Levi’s transition from hell to civilisation.

As the war between Germany and Russia had not yet ended, major railways were still in use, so the Auschwitz prisoners could only stay in the sanction of Russia for a considerable period of time.

The part that struck me most when I started the book is the moment when the Red Army from Russia arrived at the Lager to liberate the prisoners there. The mood in this scene is not joy, but inaction. Upon confrontation with the Red Army, as Levi describes, what fills the prisoners’ heart is joy, but a joy that is shadowed with shame.

(photo taken on 4 January 2016, on the way from Kalambaka to Athens, Greece)