If This is a Man, Poem

This poem warns us to not take for granted what you have, that the unexpected - whether good or bad is always around the corner, you must always be prepared and to live everyday to the full. The title allows the readers to engage and form their own perceptions to fill the space after ‘If this is a man…’ – it is an incomplete sentence.

The repetition of ‘who’ emphasises the brutality of the death camps, he prepares the readers' mindset as we enter his experience.

The beginning and ending of the poem pose contrast, phrases with contrasting meanings are used by Levi to convey the sudden 'drop' from a place with a high level of comfort to a place where identity and individuality is non-existent.

• '...warm houses' with 'your house fall apart.'
• 'live safe' with 'illness impede you.' 
• 'returning in the evening, hot food and friendly faces' with 'your children turn their faces from you.'

'A scrap of bread' is one of the many necessities in life, yet for Levi, he has to '[fight]' for it in order to satisfy his hunger. Only in doing this, is he able to sustain his energy, to have just enough 'strength to remember' a soul that was once dignified, a body that once belonged to him and the uniqueness that distinguished him from others. Yet in the death camp, these are gotten rid of. They are left with no hair and 'without name.' 'Hair' represents the physical, external state of the person. Here, a person 'without hair' represents a person without a body, a body that is taken control of, diminished and can easily disappear with 'a yes or a no.' A person 'without name' is a person without a soul, the fundamental part of human existence. Without a soul, the integrity and the individuality of a person is lost. The slow degradation of the soul and the body is evident in the concentration camp, it robs the people of their identity and their integrity, they are simply not a man, only an 'empty' creature known by numbers.

We is almost a demonstration of what it would be like if the concentration camps developed further in the memoir. In a sense, it seems to be a continuation of the memoir. People at Auschwitz are considered to be the ‘impure race,’ if the complete elimination of these people succeeds, this particular race will become like the One State in We.