Journal Entry 8

March 5, 2007

Chapter 8. The Side of Good and Evil

A memorable passage:
We now invite the reader to contemplate the possible meaning in the Lager of the worlds 'good' and 'evil', 'just' and 'unjust'; let everybody judge, on the basis of the picture we have outlined and of the examples given above, how much of our ordinary moral world could survive on this side of the barbed wire.

Some of the things in Auzwitchz was considered 'good' or 'necessary', such as stealing without getting caught by a guard. If you were an apt thief, there was a higher chance that you won't starve. Based on Christian standards, this act would be considered sin. I don't know how others may think, but for me, if I steal something from someone, I feel guilty; if someone steals something from me, I feel bad. Not only is this a Christian standard, but it seems like a universal standard (almost). Most of the countries in the world restricted a law based on robbery. Knowing that stealing is surely not something good, I wondered could the life behind thos barbed wires be a totally different life; a life that is nothing in comparison with the world right now - something like an exotic life. This leads to the questions: Should Auschwitz be categorized as its own alienated world?

I really think that the agony behind those barbed wires would have been something that we could never understand. This is something that I've repeatedly mentioned throughout my journal entries. It's easy to read and comprehend incidents that happened during the time in Auschwitz, but no matter how hard we try to understand it, it would be nothing close to how Primo Levi remembers it.