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Primo Levi

プリモ・レヴィ

Purimo Revi

Pen Names: Damiano MalabailaUsed for some of his fictional works

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1919-07-31 (Turin)
Died
1987-04-11 (Turin) age 67
Nationality
Italian
Languages
Italian
Religion
Judaism
Residence History
Turin

Career

Occupations
Writer, Chemist
Active Years
1947-1986
Affiliations
SIVA (paint factory)
Influenced By
Cesare Pavese
Influenced
Later Holocaust writers

Education

University of Turin
Faculty of Sciences / Chemistry
Degree: Degree in chemistry
Period: 1937-1941
Year of Graduation: 1941
Country: Italy
Degree marked 'of Jewish race'

Awards

Strega Prize
1979
Work: La chiave a stella
Organization: Strega Foundation
Result: 受賞
Premio Campiello
1963
Work: La tregua
Result: 受賞
Premio Viareggio
1982
Work: Se non ora, quando?
Result: 受賞
Bagutta Prize
1967
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

If This Is a Man

1947 Memoir

Account of his year in Auschwitz

HolocaustHumanitySurvival
Translations
  • Survival in Auschwitz

The Periodic Table

1975 Short story collection

Autobiographical short stories named after chemical elements

ChemistryMemoryJewish identity

Bibliography

  • If This Is a Man
  • The Truce

Adaptations

  • The Truce (film)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Clear, unpretentious proseScientific metaphors
Recurring Motifs
Holocaust memoryGray zoneHuman dignity

Health

  • Depression
    晩年
    Contributed to death debate
  • Scarlet fever
    1945年アウシュビッツ
    Saved from death march

Legacy

Major Holocaust writer, The Periodic Table named best science book

Museums

  • International Primo Levi Studies Center Turin Opened in 2008
  • Museo della Chimica Turin

Archives

  • Biblioteca della Comunità Israelitica

In Popular Culture

  • David Blaine's tattoo (camp number)

Quotes

  • If this is a man
    Source: If This Is a Man (1947)

Trivia

  • Auschwitz prisoner number 174517
  • One of 20 survivors from 650 Italian Jews