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“Why should I wash? Would I be better off than I am? Would I please someone more? Would I live a day, an hour longer? I would probably live a shorter time, because to wash is an effort, a waste of energy and warmth. Does not Steinlauf know that after half an hour with the coal sacks every difference between him and me will have disappeared? The more I think about it, the 
more washing one’s face in our condition seems a stupid feat, even frivolous: a mechanical habit, or worse, a dismal repetition of an extinct rite. We will all die, we are all about to die: if they give me ten minutes between the revile and work, I want to dedicate them to something else, to draw into myself, to weigh up things, or merely to look at the sky and think that I am looking at it perhaps for the last time; or even to let myself live, to indulge myself in the luxury of an idle moment” (Pg 40).
As I was reading this passage, I pondered for few minutes. We all die soon or later, and no one knows when he will die. Our deaths could be waiting for us in next day or even next hour. Then does that mean that we should not work and live up to our full potential and ability? When we consider this idea, we do not see the purpose of life. We might ask ourselves ‘why are we living and working or studying so hard anyway? We should be better off by being hedonists, enjoying all the pleasures in this life on earth’. I think that is the difference between non-Christians and Christians. Christians believe that the purpose of our lives is to live according to God, who said that we should show the unconditional love of God to others. To fulfill that purpose, it requires effort and the belief of eternal life. People, who do not believe in eternal life that is waiting ahead of us, will view their life as a joke and a waste of energy and time because they do not see how our life on earth will depend our future destination to either heaven or hell. Therefore we should live every day with our full potential and ability and according to what God tell us to do.
“Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself. He will be a man whose life or death can be lightly decided with no sense of human affinity, in the most fortunate of cases, on the basis of a pure judgment of utility. It is in this way that one can understand the double sense of the term ‘extermination camp’, and it is now clear what we seek to express with the phrase: ‘to lie on the bottom’. ” (Pg 27)
The phrase ‘to lie on the bottom’ simply means to be in Hell. The environment of Auschwitz was the worst human condition that can possibly exist. Primo Levi describes the condition as “We had reached the bottom. It is not possible to sink lower than this” (Pg 26). It completely violated the rudimentary and fundamental rights of human beings by implementing amoral actions such as removing the individual’s name and replacing it as numbers, taking away clothes, shoes, hair, and even one’s life. When one loses everything, his life becomes miserable and don’t see the purpose of life. Then he become less dignified, restraint and resilient, and basically give up his life. Thus the Jewish ‘haftlings’ in Auschwitz were like puppets. They had no choice or option whatsoever. They either worked or died. They were living in Hell.
“Next to me, crushed against me for the whole journey, there had been a woman. We had known each other for many years, and the misfortune had struck us together, but we knew little of each other. Now, in the hour of decision, we said to each other things that are never said among the living. We said farewell and it was short; everybody said farewell to life through his neighbour. We had no more fear.” (Pg 19)
I remember when I cried for the first time to say farewell to my friends. Even though I knew that I would certainly meet them again someday, my tears kept on falling because of the fact that I won’t be seeing them for the next few years. Yet what if I was never going to see them again? There won’t be any mourning because I would be awestricken since it would be the final and last time of seeing my friends in this life. I can’t still imagine the situation of ‘what if I was there in Auschwitz concentration camp’. But if I really was in that predicament, I would have feared nothing as well because there would be nothing to lose. I would have lost everything including family, friends, and all of my possessions anyway. Although death is what I fear the most, I won’t even fear death because I won’t see the point of living when everything in my life has been perished. Thus I would prefer to give up my life on this earth and dwell in Heaven with serenity and happiness in my soul.
Even though I heard about the Holocaust and what Jews faced during their lives in the death camps in Germany numerous times, this video was far more incredible and I was able to vividly imagine the surroundings of the horrible concentration camp. One of the things that shocked me was the hypnotized minds of the Jews. The camp has made the Jews to have the fixed idea of “You do me a favor, THEN I’ll do your favor”. The Jews became self-centered and strived for anything even betraying their own mates in order to survive. Everything that was happening in the camp was “matter of life or death”. There were many back-stabbing among the Jews and consequently, there were lackh of trust and reliance to each other. Deception and dirty ruse were the parts of their daily lives.In the video, when the reporters interviewed the SS and German officers that are alive today about how they felt during the Holocaust, I was outraged and couldn’t suppress my anger. The SS said that they did felt little-bit of guiltiness, but they believed that it was right thing to do and still don’t regret about their amoral actions which happened to kill nearly millions of innocent human beings. One of the SS officers said that there was only one thing that he regretted and it was the lack of time that he spent with his family. I thought they all were completely insane or brainwashed since they did not have any consciousness and morality. I was angry at the fact that those SS were still alive and didn’t have to face the consequences of what they did. Among the total of 7000 German SS that tortured and murdered the innocent Jews, only about 800 of them were sued and executed. Thus 90% of SS were never caught and never executed. Even though I’m not a Jew and none of my ancestors were in that horrible predicament during the World War II, I was outraged extremely. Then how would the Jews think? Their ancestors definitely have died or injured greatly from the Holocaust. They might mourn to God about this unjust crisis. I believe that there is a purpose by God behind everything that happens in this universe. I wonder the purpose of this massive genocide of the Jews. This question will absolutely be the first question that I’m going to ask when I meet Jesus.
more washing one’s face in our condition seems a stupid feat, even frivolous: a mechanical habit, or worse, a dismal repetition of an extinct rite. We will all die, we are all about to die: if they give me ten minutes between the revile and work, I want to dedicate them to something else, to draw into myself, to weigh up things, or merely to look at the sky and think that I am looking at it perhaps for the last time; or even to let myself live, to indulge myself in the luxury of an idle moment” (Pg 40).
