- Title Pages
- Preface
- Answering Auschwitz
- Prologue: Answering Auschwitz: Levi's Science and Humanism as Antifascism
-
Chapter 1 “Warum?” -
Chapter 2 Guilt or Shame? -
Chapter 3 Primo Levi and the Concept of History -
Chapter 4 Kenosis, Saturated Phenomenology, and Bearing Witness -
Chapter 5 After Auschwitz: What Is a Good Death? -
Chapter 6 The Humanity and Humanism of Primo Levi -
Chapter 7 Levi and the Two Cultures -
Chapter 8 The Partisan and His Doppelganger: The Case of Primo Levi -
Chapter 9 Primo Levi in the Public Interest: Turin, Auschwitz, Israel -
Chapter 10 Primo Levi's Struggle with the Spirit of Kafka -
Chapter 11 Ethics and Literary Strategies -
Chapter 12 Literary Encounters and Storytelling Techniques -
Chapter 13 Primo Levi and the History of Reception -
Chapter 14 Autobiography and the Narrator -
Chapter 15 Writing Against the Fascist Sword -
Chapter 16 “Singoli Stimoli”: Primo Levi's Poetry -
Chapter 17 Primo Levi's Correspondence with Hety Schmitt-Maas -
Chapter 18 A Note on the Problem of Translation -
Chapter 19 Primo Levi: A Bibliography of English and Italian Scholarly Writings, 2003–2010 - Epilogue Primo Levi's Gray Zone: A Sequence of Drawings
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Contributors
- Index
“Warum?”
“Warum?”
- Chapter:
- (p.17) Chapter 1 “Warum?”
- Source:
- Answering Auschwitz
- Author(s):
Joram Warmund
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
During his initiation into what one survivor labeled the “Holocaust Kingdom” and others would describe as the “Anus Mundi,” the young and naïve Auschwitz prisoner, Primo Levi reached outside a window for an icicle to quench his thirst. A guard patrolling outside rudely slapped it away, prompting Primo to ask, “Warum?” Why? The reply was, “Hier ist kein warum.” Here there is no why. This chapter provides useful insights into the studies of the Holocaust. Using primarily historiographic, not archival, material, it delineates the diverse roles of the perpetrators, and then narrows its focus to those who perceived themselves as victims of forces beyond their control, and to those who participated in acts of brutality and mass murder but still appeared and acted as ordinary people.
Keywords: Holocaust Kingdom, Anus Mundi, Auschwitz prisoner, Warum, mass murder
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- Title Pages
- Preface
- Answering Auschwitz
- Prologue: Answering Auschwitz: Levi's Science and Humanism as Antifascism
-
Chapter 1 “Warum?” -
Chapter 2 Guilt or Shame? -
Chapter 3 Primo Levi and the Concept of History -
Chapter 4 Kenosis, Saturated Phenomenology, and Bearing Witness -
Chapter 5 After Auschwitz: What Is a Good Death? -
Chapter 6 The Humanity and Humanism of Primo Levi -
Chapter 7 Levi and the Two Cultures -
Chapter 8 The Partisan and His Doppelganger: The Case of Primo Levi -
Chapter 9 Primo Levi in the Public Interest: Turin, Auschwitz, Israel -
Chapter 10 Primo Levi's Struggle with the Spirit of Kafka -
Chapter 11 Ethics and Literary Strategies -
Chapter 12 Literary Encounters and Storytelling Techniques -
Chapter 13 Primo Levi and the History of Reception -
Chapter 14 Autobiography and the Narrator -
Chapter 15 Writing Against the Fascist Sword -
Chapter 16 “Singoli Stimoli”: Primo Levi's Poetry -
Chapter 17 Primo Levi's Correspondence with Hety Schmitt-Maas -
Chapter 18 A Note on the Problem of Translation -
Chapter 19 Primo Levi: A Bibliography of English and Italian Scholarly Writings, 2003–2010 - Epilogue Primo Levi's Gray Zone: A Sequence of Drawings
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Contributors
- Index
