Journal Entry 4

March 1, 2007

Chapter 4. Ka-Be

Without having read the chapter, I thought that the title "Ka-Be" was a name of a person in charge; like an SS soldier. However, it meant something totally different from my expectations. Ka-Be was an abbreviation for an infirmary in the concentration camps. I was not disappointed.

Primo Levi said that the life of Ka-Be is a life of uncertainty. I didn't know what this was supposed to mean at first. I thought that being at the Ka-Be was better than working grueling hours out in the rain and sun. Reading through the paragraph, I realized that since there were more time doing nothing, life seemed more uncertain. 'Nothingness' was a scary thing, although it may have sound better than working. Probably just straight from my mind, I would have prefered to be in the Ka-Be; however, now I disagree. I've even experienced that 'silence' can be creepy - really haunting. It makes you think things you don't want to think about - like memories and unwanted stories. There use to be a time when I was so busy with school work, I didn't have much time to think about things. However, once that period was over, stress that I never imagined took away my focus from life. Because of the silence, so many things began to speak to me ... voices from 'who knows where'...

Primo Levi probably felt like I did, but to a greater extent. My experience cannot be compared to the life that he went through because it's nothing as close as to his misery.